Japanese army directly involves in vivisection of U.S. POWs during WWII: exhibition

The then Japan's Imperial Army directly involved in infamous human experiments of eight U.S. prisoners of war (POW) in 1945, according to materials exhibited in a museum at the Kyushu University's medical school.

"From May to June in 1945, under the supervision of the Imperial Army, professors of the medical school conducted human experiments on eight U.S. POWs who were captured after their B-29 bomber was shot down and all of them were died during the excruciating process," said the museum in the atrocity's introduction.

Hideki Sumimoto, dean of the medical school, said Tuesday in a press briefing that a military surgeon also took part in the gruesome experiments.

The inhuman vivisection, according to the exhibition, aimed at testing the maximum bleeding volume of a living person and the maximum volume of normal saline, but they used diluted seawater instead, that could replace blood in human body.

The exhibition also said that in one of the human experiments, the prisoners had parts of their lung dissected to determine if they could survive.

Sumimoto said that the dark history of the university was not unveiled for the first time as the book of Fifty-year History of Kyushu University, which was published in 1967, mentioned the wartime atrocity, adding all faculties of the medical school were required to reflect the inhuman experiments.

The book, one of the two items related to the human experiments in the museum, said all the faculties attended a meeting in 1948 to reflect the atrocity and they agreed that "as doctors, they need to further recognize the dignity of human lives and bodies. They need to reflect their medical research methods and should never be subjected to government authorities and military."

However, the dean said they did not find any operation record of the human experiments, adding it is possible that direct documents were deliberately destroyed by those involvers.

"Although we have not yet find the materials, we could just not deny the existence of the atrocity and we should reflect based on deep remorse," said Sumimoto, adding they never forget the tragedy and they conduct memorial events in anniversaries.

The professors of the medical school decided in March to publicly exhibit the dark chapter on the occasion of the museum's opening, saying that "they express condolence to the U.S. POWs victimized by the inhuman live dissection and they stick to the reflection made by their predecessors in 1948 and they will firmly follow it."

"To help is the first duty of doctors, but the war drove them insane. If the war never happened, it is possible that the tragedy of human experiments would also not occur. But for the most important thing, doctors should stick to the moral in any occasion, " concluded Sumimoto.

According to the exhibition, a professor involved in the human experiments killed himself after the war, and 14 university members were convicted of war crimes with sentences such as death by hanging and life in prison. Endi