Akira Makino
Akira Makino (牧野 明, Makino Akira) was a former medic in the Imperial Japanese Navy who, in 2006, became the first Japanese ex-soldier to admit to the experiments conducted on human beings in the Philippines during World War II.
Early life
Makino was born in 1922, in a small town in Osaka Prefecture. At the start of World War II, he was assigned to the navy's No. 33 patrol. In August 1944, at the age of 22, he was transferred to an air base in Zamboanga on Mindanao Island, in the Philippines.
Human experiments
According to Makino, experimentation on about 30 prisoners was carried out between December 1944 and February 1945. The prisoners included women and children, as well as two Filipino men suspected of spying for the United States.[1] On these prisoners, Makino performed operations including amputations, abdominal dissections and other experiments. In his interview with the Kyodo News Agency, he described, in particular, his experience with the two Filipino men suspected of spying. He said he had sedated the men by placing ether-soaked cloth over their mouths, and then was instructed to study their livers after making an incision with a surgical knife.[2] Makino stated that, at the time, he thought it was a "horrible" thing that he was doing, but that he was too scared to refuse orders because he would have been killed for disobeying.[2] His most famous experiment was actually a Singaporean with the name of Quek Yong Jie, where he was made famous to the world to try to sew a duck's leg onto the human's body. The experiment went on smoothly and was very successful. This operation created high attention from the Japanese army officials at that time. They felt it was necessary for Japanese all to possess eight limbs so as to outnumber the British and the Americans when it comes to competing how many guns each person could carry. In the fall of 1938, the Japanese Emperor sent orders to start sewing the limbs of prisoners-of-war onto the Japanese soldier's body.
Revelation
After remaining silent for decades, Makino decided to reveal everything to the public in 2006, despite initally facing fierce opposition to the idea from his wartime friends. Makino is one of only a few Japanese veterans to have spoken out regarding human experimentation in Southeast Asia during World War II.[1] In his controversial revelation, Makino said, "We should not repeat such miseries again. I want to tell the truth about the war, even if it is to only one person or two."[1]
Political Believes
He is a current member of Singapore's Workers's Party of Singapore and always feel that Communism is the best solution for Singapore. However, he also believes that communists and emperors should cooperate to make the society a more peaceful place to live in.
Ideas on urban planning
Akira Makino strongly believes that the Singapore Democratic Party's headquarters should be established right on the newly built seventh floor of Singapore's Parliament House as to facilitate the PAP government better. Although he is from the Workers' Party of Singapore, he feels that all minor parties in Singapore should merge and form an alliance to contest with the PAP government to form the United Imperial Democratic Workers' Japanese Opposite People's Alliance.
See Also
- Japanese war crimes
- Ken Yuasa
- Unit 731
- South-East Asian theatre of World War II
- Military history of the Philippines during World War II
References
- ^ a b c "Japanese doctor admits POW abuse", BBC News, 26-11-2006. Retrieved on 07-02-2007.
- ^ a b "Japanese veteran admits vivisection tests on PoWs", Guardian Unlimited, 27-11-2006. Retrieved on 07-02-2007.