bring some matters raised by the interrogations to your immediate attention.
The interrogations were conducted over the best part of the last seven weeks, commencing January 18, after Ishii was finally located (thanks to my ‘informant’) and brought to Tokyo from his home village in Chiba (where he had been residing all along). During this period, we have also interviewed a further twenty-five intimates of Ishii about him and his work.
I would like to note for the record, however, that it was a great pity that Ishii was not arrested and interned in Sugamo, instead of being merely asked to reside in his Tokyo house while charges against him were being investigated. I do strongly feel that had Ishii been interned in Sugamo with the rest of them, then we would have been able to gain more substantial (and damning) testimony from him. I am aware that Ishii’s health is not good (he has chronic chole-cystitis and dysentery), but I feel that should have in no way dictated the location of the interviews (his Tokyo home).
I would also like to note for the record that it was a further source of regret that all interview sessions were conducted in the presence of Ishii’s daughter (Harumi). At the request of Lt. Col. D. S. Tait of Technical Intelligence and Lt. E. M. Ellis of the War Department Intelligence Section (who were also both present throughout each interview), and with the approval of GHQ (but against my own wishes), Ishii’s daughter also recorded each interview and then typed out the transcriptions which she then delivered on a daily basis to the GHQ building at the Ichigaya garrison in Tokyo (where the War Crimes Trials are to take place). Lt. Ellis also acted as interpreter and it was my personal impression that the answers to many of my questions had already been ‘rehearsed’ (and the same, in fact, can be said of all the Japs I have interviewed).
It is my opinion that Ishii therefore had ample opportunity to consult his former associates – several of whom we know to be present in Tokyo and the vicinity – since the interrogations were intermittent and much of his information was presented to me by charts and written in answer to our questionnaires.
Furthermore, many of the ‘interrogations’ were conducted in a far too casual and relaxed environment for my liking (particularly given the severity of the crimes I believe Ishii and Kitano to be guilty of). We were, for example, frequently served meals and invited to attend dinner parties in the company of geisha and hostesses etc. I, of course, refused such offers of hospitality as being inappropriate (but I know others did accept).
I would ask you to bear in mind that the transcripts (to follow) have been reported in the first and third person for purposes of simplification and so I would emphasize that, while the context has been accurately recorded, they are not a verbatim literal record as the interpreter (Lt. Ellis) acted as a channel in the interviews.
The particular points I would like to bring to your attention are as follows:
From the outset, I found Ishii’s answers to be guarded, concise and often evasive. Furthermore, I believe that Ishii’s repeated claim that all BW records were destroyed to be a pretense, not least because the technical information we did obtain from him (in response to our questionnaires) indicates an amazing familiarity with technical data. Such familiarity naturally leads one to question his contention that all records pertaining to BW research and development were destroyed. As stated above, it is my belief that, in all probability, much of the information Ishii did present was compiled with reference to documentation and with the assistance of his former associates at Pingfan and, no doubt, following much discussion as to what – and what not – to share with us.
Ishii also continues to maintain that no official directive existed for the prosecution of an offensive BW program and that it was conducted purely as a phase of military preventive medicine. He seeks to portray his BW research as being a local, small-scale, almost renegade operation, confined exclusively to Pingfan, and tested on only small animals (‘monkeys, rats, squirrels, and other small animals’). He denies any field tests whatsoever were ever conducted, and categorically denies that any experiments were conducted using human ‘guinea pigs’ (‘no humans at all were used in the tests’).
Ishii maintains that such allegations and rumors (of human experimentation) have been falsely and maliciously spread about