Storyline: Members of Japan's notorious Unit 731 have failed to reflect on and repent for their wartime atrocities as they have established a post-war comrades-in-arms association to continue keeping them organized, according to a historical researcher. Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin in 1935 as the nerve center of Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during World War II. At least 3,000 people were used for human experimentation by Unit 731 and more than 300,000 people across China were killed by Japan's biological weapons. A significant collection of new evidence related to Unit 731 was made available to the public on Monday at the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. The new evidence includes 3,010 pages of archive documents, 194 minutes of video footage, 312 photographs, 12 postcards and eight letters, exposing Japanese germ-warfare crimes in detail. Among these materials, the oral testimonies of former Unit 731 Youth Corps members Kikuta Sunaga and Hisao Naganuma have drawn significant attention. The testimonies provide detailed accounts of Unit 731's facilities, the management and operations of the Youth Corps, the unit's core mission, the composition of its personnel, and the post-war circumstances of its members. The Unit 731 Youth Corps, formed to bolster manpower and train reserve forces for biological warfare, consisted of Japanese teenagers aged 14 to 18, according to experts. "Unit 731 can be divided into two groups. One is its core group at the top, consisting of officers and doctoral researchers, who were at the center of the unit. After the war, these individuals leveraged the results of Unit 731 to become key figures in Japan's academic and medical fields. The other group consists of the lower-tier members such as the young soldiers, who mostly engaged in manual labor after returning to Japan," said Jin Shicheng, the vice secretary-general of Harbin Research Association on History of Japanese Bacterial and Chemical Warfare in China. Far from being punished for their crimes, the former Unit 731 members even established a comrade-in-arms association after the war, with the involvement of high-level officers including Shiro Ishii, founder and head of Unit 731, and Masaji Kitano, a second commander of the Japanese Army Unit 731. This is a de facto continuation of the Unit 731. "Unit 731 can be divided into two groups. One is its core group at the top, consisting of officers and doctoral researchers, who were at the center of the unit. After the war, these individuals leveraged the results of Unit 731 to become key figures in Japan's academic and medical fields. The other group consists of the lower-tier members such as the young soldiers, who mostly engaged in manual labor after returning to Japan," said Jin. Jin said the existence of the Youth Corps fully demonstrates that Unit 731's actions were a systematic, premeditated, and large-scale national crime, orchestrated by Japan through a top-down mobilization of the nation's resources. "The establishment and existence of the Youth Corps were synchronized with Unit 731, demonstrating that Japan's biological warfare plan was pursued and implemented as a long-term strategy. Therefore, exposing the crimes of Unit 731 Youth Corps is equivalent to exposing the crimes of Unit 731 itself, with an aim of remembering history, defending peace, learning from the past, and looking toward the future," said Jin. Shotlist: Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China - Recent: 1. Aerial shot of Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of Japanese Imperial Army 2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Jin Shicheng, vice secretary-general, Harbin Research Association on History of Japanese Bacterial and Chemical Warfare in China (ending with shot 3): "Unit 731 can be divided into two groups. One is its core group at the top, consisting of officers and doctoral researchers, who were at the center of the unit. After the war, these individuals leveraged the results of Unit 731 to become key figures in Japan's academic and medical fields. The other group consists of the lower-tier members such as the young soldiers, who mostly engaged in manual labor after returning to Japan." 3. Various of board showing some Unit 731 members' postwar work; visitors 4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Jin Shicheng, vice secretary-general, Harbin Research Association on History of Japanese Bacterial and Chemical Warfare in China (starting with shot 3/ending with shot 5): "In 1958, the members established a "Pingfang Comrades Association," with Shiro Ishii and Masaji Kitano both attending the founding ceremony. The association published an internal magazine, which featured numerous post-war memoirs from former Youth Corps members of Unit 731. After a Unit 731 member's death, their wives and descendants could also join the association. Thus, although the Unit 731 was disbanded, its members remained connected after the war. The association represented their "second assembly" in Japan, where they continued to conceal their crimes and refused to reflect or repent." 5. Various of magazines of Pingfang Comrades Association, contents 6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Jin Shicheng, vice secretary-general, Harbin Research Association on History of Japanese Bacterial and Chemical Warfare in China (starting with shot 5/ending with shots 7-8): "The establishment and existence of the Youth Corps were synchronized with Unit 731, demonstrating that Japan's biological warfare plan was pursued and implemented as a long-term strategy. Therefore, exposing the crimes of Unit 731 Youth Corps is equivalent to exposing the crimes of Unit 731 itself, with an aim of remembering history, defending peace, learning from the past, and looking toward the future." 7. Aerial shot of Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of Japanese Imperial Army 8. Various of exhibits 9. Various of buildings, sunset [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]