"Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
news:3F30F872.8811DA74@yahoo.co.jp...
> masayuki yoshida wrote:
>
> > "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
> > news:3F30E795.7BCC1628@yahoo.co.jp...
> > > masayuki yoshida wrote:
> > >
> > > > > > Isn't it. How come some Japanese investigators would even know about the
> > > > > > existence or activities of Unit 731, not known or revealed to the public
> > > > > > until the 90s, fifty years ago? I should say that
> > > > >
> > > > > Um, you're gonna have to clear up these dates; did you mean the 60s? Ienaga
> > > > > wrote about it.
> > > >
> > > > Correct.  I have once heard that the first report over Unit 731 popped up in a
> > kasutori
> > > > magazine or something in the 50s.  Seiichi Morimura, mystery novelist, published
a
> > > > documentary book on the subject, the book became a million seller in 1981 or
1982.
> > The
> > > > story of the evil experiment has been ubiquitously talked amonst Japanese ever
since
> > > > then.
> > >
> > > So why the surprise among the general public as recently as the 90s when aged
soldiers
> > > came forward or researchers publicized their findings and people created a
traveling
> > > exhibit? Why the cover-ups as when suspicious bodies found buried in mass graves
in
> > Tokyo
> > > are simply disposed of? Why the government denials? And why don't students know?
> >
> > I provided with some facts which suggest that many people know the story of Unit 731
for
> > the late two or three decades.  Do you want to deny the facts?
>
> It is you denying facts, if you deny the general public did not know until recently,
the
> government continues such acts as keeping files sealed, or simply disposing of
embarrassing
> evidence such as bodies unearthed in Tokyo, and "many" people (many more than you
claim
> knew since the 1950s) still do not know.
>
> So a book about Unit 731 became a "million" seller in 1982. Gotai Fumanzoku became
about a
> five million seller in a matter of months, but extensive media exposure was still
necessary
> for the Japanese public to know about Ototake, and much more exposure and time will be
> necessary before people actually take heed of his message and cause.
>
> Look at how much time and effort it has taken (PLUS admission by North Korea) for the
> abduction issue to be known to Japanese and attract so much attention. Japanese do not
even
> know or care about the THOUSANDS of OTHER Japanese still not back from the war era,
and NOT
> living as elites as the surviving abductees and their families were. People already
seem to
> have conveniently forgotten that it is the Japanese government and Japanese public
> themselves who did not listen to the abductees' families or act on their pleas over
the
> decades.
>
> The burning of paper cranes at the Peace Memorial Park last week is probably better
known
> or understood, (or cared about more) than Unit 731. People were SO offended by the
> "trampling upon of people's hopes for peace" and within days 200,000 paper cranes were
> collected the criminals' school to replace the 140,000 symbolic pieces of paper (less
than
> one week's supply of the 10 MILLION paper cranes placed every year, the rest probably
> TRASHED anyway, and look at how effectively they have maintained world peace) that he
> burned.
>
> I wonder how many decades if ever, it will take for Japanese to be so offended by what
Unit
> 731 did, the fact that some researchers became high ranking officials, or the fact the
> issue is unresolved?

This site (in Japanese) suggests that several books on Unit 731 were published in the
50s and 60s.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/net/jpn/sizimi/evils/bibliography.html

You will be surprised at finding a mountain of references there.  If, despite of there
being such rich references in Japan, many people are not familiar with the project,
they would be very busy in doing other things for their own living.  That is one of
their choices.  I can understand that as a matter of sensitivity people don't want to
know about such an evil history.  To forget or to be unaware is *sometimes* the best way
for getting through the stress burden society.

Masayuki


> --
> "This is the best book I've ever read! Even though I've only read one, it is by far
the
> best in the world."
>
> - A 12-year old reader from California, CA USA
>
>