On Saturday, December 13, 2025, China marks the 12th National Memorial Day for the Nanjing Massacre victims. Yet across the sea, debates over Japan’s wartime history continue to shape public memory—none more disturbing than the fate of Unit 731.
Unit 731: A grim chapter
Between 1935 and 1945, Unit 731, based in Harbin in northeastern China, conducted covert human experiments under the Japanese military. More than 3,000 prisoners, including civilians and Allied POWs, faced frostbite tests, plague infections and even vivisection. Field deployments of plague-infested fleas and contaminated water supplies in provinces such as Zhejiang and Hunan caused mass casualties and long-term health crises.
Three tactics of historical revisionism
1. Textbook censorship
Since the 1980s, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has pressured publishers to remove or downplay Unit 731 from schoolbooks. Historian Saburo Ienaga’s lawsuit forced courts to deem this censorship unlawful, yet official curricula still avoid full acknowledgment of these crimes.
2. Denial and distortion
Some ultraconservative politicians and commentators, from former defense minister Tomomi Inada to writer Yoshiko Sakurai, dismiss Unit 731 as Soviet propaganda. Academic critics like Shoichi Watanabe label survivor testimony “fabrication,” ignoring decades of international archival research.
3. Blaming “rogue soldiers”
Revisionists argue that biological warfare stemmed from a few “rogue” operatives, not state policy. However, declassified records reveal Unit 731 reported directly to the Imperial Army and received funding by secret imperial order signed by Emperor Hirohito in 1936.
Why it matters today
Whitewashing wartime atrocities is more than a dispute over facts—it fuels nationalist agendas, affects regional trust and undermines global efforts to learn from the past. As young global citizens, understanding how political manipulation shapes history helps us safeguard truth and promote accountability worldwide.
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Unveil political manipulation behind Japan's historical revisionism
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