Khabarovsk War Crime Trials

Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were hearings held between December 25 - 31, 1949, in the Soviet Union's industrial city of Khabarovsk (Хабáровск) situated on the Russian Far East (Дáльний Востóк). There, twelve members of the Japanese Kwantung Army were tried as war criminals for manufacturing and using biological weapons during World War II.

During the trials, the accused, such as Major General Kiyoshi Kawashima, testified that, as early as 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague-contaminated fleas on Changde. These operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks.

All twelve accused war criminals were found guilty, and sentenced to terms ranging between two and twenty-five years in a labour camp. All were repatriated to Japan in 1956.

The USSR published official materials relating to the trial in English. It included documents from the preliminary investigation (the Indictment, some documentary evidence, and some interrogation records), testimony and last pleas from the accused, some expert findings, and speeches from the State Prosecutor and Defense Counsel, verbatim. The edition has long been out of print.

According to one bioethics expert, "Despite its strong ideological tone and many obvious shortcomings such as the lack of international participation, the trial established beyond reasonable doubt that the Japanese army had prepared and deployed bacteriological weapons and that Japanese researchers had conducted cruel experiments on living human beings. However, the trial, together with the evidence presented to the court and its major findings — which have proved remarkably accurate — was dismissed as communist propaganda and totally ignored in the West until the 1980s."

Accused and their sentences

 * General Otozō Yamada, former Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army • 25 years
 * Lt-General Kajitsuka Ryuji, former Chief of Medical Administration • 25 years
 * Lt-General Takahashi Takaatsu, former Chief of the Veterinary Service • 25 years
 * Major General Kawashima Kiyoshi, former Chief of Unit 731 • 25 years
 * Major Karasawa Tomio, former Chief of a section of Unit 731 • 18 years
 * Lt-Colonel Nishi Toshihide, former Chief of a division of Unit 731 • 20 years
 * Major Onoue Masao, former Chief of a branch of Unit 731 • 12 years
 * Major General Sato Shunji, former Chief of Medical Service, 5th Army • 20 years
 * Lt. Hirazakura Zensaku, former researcher of Unit 100 • 10 years
 * Senior Sergeant Mitomo Kazuo, former member of Unit 100 • 15 years
 * Corporal Kikuchi Norimitsu, former medical orderly of Branch 643 of Unit 731 • 2 years
 * Kurushima Yuji, former lab orderly of Branch 162 of Unit 731 • 3 years