STORY: Japanese veteran yearning for China visit to apologize
SHOOTING TIME: July 5, 2024
DATELINE: July 11, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:29
LOCATION: IIDA, Japan
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Hideo Shimizu
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member
3. various of the complex of the Unit 731 in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member
5. various of Hideo Shimizu
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member

STORYLINE:

Hideo Shimizu, a Japanese veteran who served in a notorious Japanese germ warfare unit during World War II, expressed his yearning to visit China to pray for the deceased and apologize to their families.

At a recent press conference in Iida City, Japan, the nearly 94-year-old former Unit 731 Youth Corps member made these remarks.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member
"I'm going to China with the hope that there will be no more wars.
My most important wish for this trip is to pray for the victims whose names are not even known."

Shimizu is set to visit China in August, returning to the origin of his lifelong heavy memories -- the Japanese bacteriology unit's sprawling complex in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin.

From the late 1930s until the end of the war, thousands of Chinese civilians and Allied prisoners of war were killed there. Today, the location serves as the Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by the Japanese Army Unit 731.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member
"The specimen room was deeply distressing to look at.
The cruelty was unbearable.
The fetuses from pregnant women were preserved in bottles of formalin.
They didn't even spare such small children."

Decades after returning to Japan, Shimizu publicly revealed in 2016 his identity as a former Unit 731 Youth Corps member.

Since then, he has dedicated himself to exposing the crimes of Unit 731 and educating the public about the historical truths.

SOUNDBITE 3 (Japanese): HIDEO SHIMIZU, Former Unit 731 Youth Corps member
"I want to let the public know about the cruel atrocities committed by Japan.
That's why I give lectures.
It is the Japanese government that committed so many bad deeds without a hint of remorse.
What concerns me the most is that now in Japan, they want to act as if the brutal history never existed."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Iida, Japan.
(XHTV)