US shielded Japanese war criminals after WW2 for biowarfare data — China cites Russian report

The report by the Chinese state-owned Xinhua news agency comes amid a renewed debate on Covid origins & strained Japan-China ties.

Japanese soldiers during World War II | Wikimedia commons

New Delhi: The US decided not to prosecute a number of Japanese war criminals after World War II in exchange for their data on biological weapons, reported Chinese state-owned Xinhua news agency Tuesday.

Citing an article by Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xinhua reported: “Countering objections from China and the Soviet Union, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur, during the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, eliminated the atrocities committed by the notorious Unit 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development operation.”

MacArthur served as Chief of Staff of the US Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theatre during World War II.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was created after a 1946 proclamation by MacArthur.

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army and conducted research by experimenting on humans. It sought to develop weapons of biological warfare, including plague, anthrax, cholera and more, notes a 1995 report by The New York Times.

The unit also carried out “field testing” of plague bombs by dropping them on Chinese cities to see whether they could trigger health outbreaks.

Report comes amid strained China-Japan ties, international interest into Covid origins

According to Xinhua, the Russian article said the US granted immunity to Japanese war criminals as it was “extremely interested in such [biowarfare] data”.

The US “preferred this information to the triumph of justice amid the looming threat of the Cold War”, added the Chinese news agency.

Various American publications like The New York Times and The LA Times as well as research papers have also reported about Japanese war crimes and the alleged cover-up by the US.

The Xinhua report comes amid strained relations between Japan and China over the disputed Senkaku Islands and over statements made during the recent G7 summit and just a day after the US Army celebrated its 246th birthday.

It also follows renewed interest by the international community into the origins of Covid-19 and the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan. However, China has repeatedly denied such claims.