Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were hearings held between December 25 - 31st, 1949 in the Soviet Union's industrial city of Khabarovsk (Хабáровск) situated on the Russian Far East (Дáльний Востóк). There, twelve members of the Japanese Kwantung Army were tried as war criminals for manufacturing and using biological weapons during World War II.
During the trials, the accused, such as Major General Kiyashi Kawashima, testified that, as early as 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague-contaminated fleas on Changde. These operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks.
All twelve accused war criminals were found guilty, and sentenced to terms ranging between two and twenty-five years in a labour camp. All were repatriated to Japan in 1956.
Read more about Khabarovsk War Crime Trials: Accused and Their Sentences
Famous quotes containing the words war, crime and/or trials:
“I certainly know that if the war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it, whether I deserve it or not. And I ought to be blamed, if I could do better. You think I could do better; therefore you blame me already. I think I could not do better; therefore I blame you for blaming me.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“A bad end, a sad end, was the last end of Mieze. And why, why, why? What crime had she committed? She came from Bernau into the whirl of Berlin, she was not an innocent girl, certainly not, but her love for him was pure and steadfast; he was her man and she took care of him like a child. She was struck down because she happened by chance to encounter this man; such is life, it’s really inconceivable.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“All trials are trials for one’s life, just as all sentences are sentences of death.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)