Today is the 95th anniversary of the September 18th Incident. Let’s walk into the Crime Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Invaders in Pingfang District, Harbin to learn about the “Special Transfer” files.
The so-called "special transfer" refers to the criminal act of the Kwantung Military Police and other military and police agencies during the Japanese invasion of China, which transferred captured anti-Japanese spies, patriots and other personnel to Unit 731 for human experimentation without trial in court. The "special transfer" system is an important channel for Unit 731 to systematically obtain living experimental subjects.
"Whereabouts unknown" for more than 50 years
How to retrieve a name from archives
In the "Special Transfer" exhibition hall of the Crime Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Invaders, a photo is displayed. The protagonist of the photo is Yuan Meizhen, director of the Staff Office of the Seventh Army of the Northeast Anti-Resistance Alliance. He was one of the cases of "special transfer" by the Japanese invaders.
He once opened a restaurant called "Yuanjia Restaurant" in Hulin. His external identity was the owner of the hotel, but in fact he was an intelligence officer. He traveled to and from the Sino-Soviet border many times, delivering important intelligence to the Communist International. In 1941, Yuan Meizhen was arrested by the Hulin Military Police at the time on the charge of being a "tongsu spy", and her whereabouts were subsequently unknown. It was not until 1997, more than 50 years later, that his name was discovered in two files kept by the Heilongjiang Provincial Archives.
One is an interrogation investigation report submitted by the Hulin Military Police Detachment.
Heilongjiang Provincial Archives Publicity, Education and Culture Department Zhao Qian: It was recorded at the beginning of the report that Yuan Meizhen was secretly detained on August 17, 1941, and was secretly arrested on Hulin Street. The head of this report is stamped with a secret seal, indicating that it is a secret report within the Kwantung Military Police. It is stamped with the long and thin seals of the captain of the Dongan Military Police and the commander of the Kwantung Military Police, as well as the "Special Transfer" stamp. In other words, this person is treated as a "special transfer."
Gong Wenjing, director of the International Research Center on July 31 Issues of the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, said that "special transfer" is a proper term, which is mainly used to provide a stable source of human experiment subjects for the 731 Force to conduct human experiments. It is mainly used between the Japanese Kanto Military Police, the Police Department, the Security Department and related secret service agencies and the 731 Force. It is a secret word.
Jin Shicheng, Director of the Publicity, Education and Exhibition Department of the Crime Evidence Exhibition Hall of the Japanese Invaders Unit 731: The process of "special transfer" mainly includes arrest, interrogation, and preparation of interrogation reports. Then the Kwantung Military Police issued an order to transfer to Unit 731. After being sent to Unit 731, they were first imprisoned in a special prison, and then underwent experiments and pathological anatomy. In the end, all those transferred died in the laboratory or anatomy room.
The other was a secret telegram from the commander of the Kwantung Military Police to the captain of Dongan. The telegram issued this instruction: According to the Hulin County Gao Report No. 423, Yuan Meizhen should be transferred as a "special transfer."
Such an order proved that this person was eventually transferred to the 731st Unit.
The "special transfer" procedure, from arrest, interrogation to report formation, is all run within the Kanto Military Police, and then reported to the headquarters step by step - Yuan Meizhen's name can be traced based on the file records left behind at this level.
Those like Yuan Meizhen who left complete archives are only part of them. According to data provided by the International Research Center on the July 31st Issue of the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, there are currently 1,556 people who have been "specially transferred" through archives, historical materials and the records of the Khabarovsk Trial. Many of them are personnel who provide intelligence to the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces and the Comintern Intelligence Station.
A program specially designed for human experiments on the 731st troops
From "Special Transfer" to State Crime
Why is it called "special transfer" because it does not go through trial or relevant law enforcement agencies. These official interrogation procedures and identification procedures are clearly private actions. All files related to "special transfer" have the word "secret" on them, and some are even "confidential" or "extremely secret", that is, top secret documents.
The 731st Unit of the Japanese invaders developed bacteriological weapons and carried out bacteriological warfare. There was a prerequisite - indoor experiments were required, and indoor experiments required human bodies. This is also the main reason why Unit 731 was transferred from Tokyo, Japan to Harbin, China: There are processes and procedures required to arrest subjects in Northeastern areas such as Harbin.
The "special transfer" is mainly to solve the source of the human experiments of the 731st troops. It can be said to be a special plan specially formulated for the human experiments of the 731st troops. Gong Wenjing introduced that the criteria for delineating those who are "specially transferred" have gone through two iterations:
It started with a general order on "special transfer" formed in 1938. This document began to institutionalize and systematize "special transfer";
After five years of iteration, a more systematic document on the status of "special transfer" persons was issued in 1943. It can be seen from this document that some anti-Japanese comrades and even some ordinary people, so-called all personnel with the possibility of resisting Japan, may be sent to the 731st Unit.
The basis for delimiting the scope is a document formulated by the Japanese Kanto Military Police itself, not any law.
Gong Wenjing, Director of the International Research Center on July 31st Issues at the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences: Japan clearly knew that the preparation and implementation of human experiments served the strategic considerations of Japan's war of aggression against China and the use of germ warfare in the war against the Soviet Union. Such behavior itself violated international conventions and violated international law. Japan can be said to be well aware of it, so it took a series of actions to cover up and whitewash its war crimes - "special transfer" came into being.
Gong Wenjing said that "special transfer" is the core link in the huge criminal system network of Japan's bacterial warfare against China. It connects the research center, the experimental center, and the actual combat center. All the experimental results produced by the 731 Force's human experiments have their roots in those living lives. And where did this life come from? It originated from the secret, evil, and cruel "special transfer" system.
Jin Shicheng, Director of the Publicity, Education and Exhibition Department of the Crime Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Army: Japan's invasion of China's bacteriological warfare is not only a group crime of the Japanese medical system, but also a group crime jointly formed by the military police system and the military system. It is a top-down, large-scale and organized group crime, and it is a national crime.
(Headquarters reporters Yang Yang, Wang Haiqiao, Zhang Gengsheng and Wu Yinong)
