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War and Medicine: Exhibition Panel Brochure

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War and Medicine: Exhibition Panel Brochure WAR AND MEDICINE Exhibition panel brochure Facts and responsibility of participation of Japanese medical establishment to 15 years war Project exhibition in the 27th general assembly of the Japan Medical Congress Executive Committee of the War and Medicine Exhibition at the 27th General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress Exhibition of the 27th General Assembly of The Japan Medical Congress: WAR & MEDICINE The Prospectus The 27th General Assembly of The Japan Medical Congress will be held in Osaka in 2007, the 60th anniversary year of the “Fifteen Years’ War”. This assembly, therefore, affords us a good opportunity to reflect upon the footsteps of the pre and postwar medical establishment of Japan, and in particular with reference to its association with the “War.” Along with the rapid development in medical science and practice, higher standards of medical ethics are required of scholars and doctors. To meet this requirement, one of our important tasks is to look back in a serious way at the path of medical science and practice on which we have trod. The main theme of the 27th Assembly is “the Origin of Life and Medicine̶LIFE, HUMANITY, DREAM,” which encourages the “information transmission from the origin.” This theme must respond to the strong demand on the medical profession for a “reflection from an original point of view.” However, the “reflection from an original point of view” will never be possible without reflecting upon the morality of Japanese medicine during the early Showa period and the “Fifteen Years’ War” to the following “postwar” period̶when the medical science and practice of Japan began to develop and modernize. Above all, the participation of the Japan Medical Association (JMA)/the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences (JAMS) in the “Fifteen Years’ War” and the “human experimentations” and “vivisections” performed by Japanese medical scholars/doctors call out for our inevitable and sincere repentance, considering the inheritance of the postwar medicine from such practices. The whole picture of the issue concerning Unit 731 during the Fifteen Years’ War (hereafter “the Unit 731 issue”) is not yet clarified because of the burning and scattering of contemporaneous documents and the “secrecy” and “concealment” of the remaining ones. GHQ, which occupied Japan at that time, questioned many medical scientists and doctors involved in the Unit but raised no question about war crimes and medical morality. Under these circumstances, among the circles of JMA/JAMS, the truth of the Unit 731 issue has been treated as “obscure,” and the issue itself as “resolved” or “taboo.” During these 60 years almost no commitment has been made to face this issue and the like seriously, and to learn a lesson therewith. In 1951, on its accession to the World Medical Association, JMA made a statement that “as the representative institution of Japanese doctors, JMA, on this occasion, reprimands the violence inflicted upon the people of the enemy countries, and condemns the alleged and in a few cases actually performed cruelties on patients.” This statement, although the only official comment on these issues, is not yet oriented towards a serious reflection on the wartime behavior of the Japanese medical profession, nor to a consequent reconsideration for the future of the ideal/morals of medical science and practice. In Germany, on the contrary, an ally of Japan during the wartime, the Berlin Medical Association (Die Ärztekammer Berlin) declared in 1988 that “we remember the doctors’ roles in Nazism and the unforgettable agonies of victims. The Berlin Medical Council bears that burden of the past. We feel sorrow and shame.” Thus “overcoming the past” has been promoted also in the medical arena. “Those who blink at the past also blink at the present”: this is the historical lesson we mean to learn. In order to make this 60th anniversary a turning point, we would like to expose the former relationship between war and medicine, with special reference to the atrocities committed by the medical scientists and doctors during the war, and to commence a discussion based on historical facts. In this way, we will be able to not only contribute to the establishment of medical ethics and the future of the medical profession, but to stop the growing movement to reverse the wheel of history in Japan. The executive committee of this exhibition has introduced two features: the exhibition booths and the international symposium (at the second site). We wish to dedicate these activities to your better understanding of the truth concerning the complicity of Japanese medical scientists/doctors in the “Fifteen Years’ War,” and to help improve medical ethics in Japan. September, 2006 Executive Committee of the “War and Medicine” Exhibition at the 27th General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress 1 Introduction On March 30, 1949, at the annual meeting of the House of Delegates, the Japan Medical Association reached a unanimous decision: That the Japan Medical Association, representing the doctors of Japan, takes this occasion to denounce atrocities perpetrated on the enemy during the war period, and to condemn acts of maltreatment of patients which are alleged and in some cases known to have occurred. This statement, however, says nothing about the actual “cruelties.” Without a precise assessment of historical events, we cannot criticize or condemn those “cruelties.” This exhibition offers materials to identify the facts discovered so far, to repent and apologize as the Japanese medical establishment, and to express our resolution never to act against medical ethics. This exhibition consists of four parts: 1.Historical facts about the offences committed by medical scholars and doctors during the war 2.Japanese colonial medicine and practices 3. Influence of war policy/mobilization, and the war itself on medical science 4. Postwar medical establishment in Japan and the Unit 731 issue 2 Historical Background (1) Imperialism The 19th and early 20th centuries were the age of imperialism, when the world was divided by military force into territories of the great powers. Japan, the only imperialist country in Asia, with its slogans, “Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Military” (Fukoku Kyohei) and “Leave Asia and Enter Europe” (Datsua Nyuou), invaded its neighboring nations. 1840-1842 Opium War 1867 Restoration of Imperial Rule 1868 Meiji Restoration 1880s Partition of Africa by European powers 1889 Promulgation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese War （1895 Taiwan becomes a Japanese territory.） 1898 Spanish-American War （The Philippines become an American territory.） 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance 1904 Russo-Japanese War 1910 (Korea becomes Japanese territory.) 1914-1918 World War I 1915 Japan’s Twenty-one Demands on China 1918 Japan’s Siberian Intervention 3 Historical Background (2) Towards Peace and Cooperation After the ravages of World War I, there emerged a trend towards cooperation and reduction in military forces. The Nine- Powers Treaty was signed by the nine major countries including Japan, U.S.A, and Britain, to affirm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. In addition, the Treaty for the Renunciation of War (the Pact of Paris) included: Article 1 (renunciation of war). The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another. Article 2 (settlement of disputes by pacific means). The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means. 1920 Foundation of the League of Nations 1921 Washington Conference（Washington Naval Treaty) 1922 Nine Powers Treaty 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake 1925 Promulgation of the General Election Law and the Peace Preservation Law 1925 Geneva Protocol (prohibition of the use of chemical and biological weapons in actual warfare) 1927 Showa Financial Crisis 1927 Toho (East) Council (principles of the policy towards China) 1928 Chang Tso-lin murdered in Huanggutun Incident 1929 Pact of Paris (Treaty for the Renunciation of War) 4 Historical Background (3) Japan’s Militarism However, Japan with its militarist policy committed aggression against the Northeast and principal parts of China, which extended to the war in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, more than 20 million people were killed, and Japan ended up in defeat in 1945. 1929 Great Depression 1931 Liutiaohu Incident 1932 Foundation of “Manchukuo” 1933 Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations 1937 Lugouqiao (Marco Polo Bridge) Incident Nanjing Massacre 1939 Nomonhan Incident 1940 Tripartite Pact among Japan, Germany, and Italy 1941-1945 Pacific War 5 1. Historical Facts about the Offences Committed by Medical Scholars and Doctors during the War This exhibition demonstrates the fact that, mainly in overseas countries, Japanese medical scientists and doctors killed a total amount of, reportedly, thousands of people by performing experiments or practicing surgeries on them, from around 1932 till Japan lost the war in August 1945. The venues for these practices are chiefly the “Ishii Network”̶ including Unit 731̶organized by Shiro Ishii for research in military medicine, and the military hospitals in the occupied areas. Some other experiments were also conducted at prestigious academies, such as Manchuria Medical College and Kyushu Imperial University. 6 Ishii Network This was a network of military medicine built by the army surgeon Shiro Ishii. Its “Unit 731” produced biological weapons and violated international law by actually using them in the Nomonhan Incident and the second Sino- Japanese War. This Unit is said to have experimented on and killed approximately 3,000 Chinese and others for the investigation of military medicine. Those who performed the human experimentation flew back to Japan towards the end of the war and, by presenting the research data to the U.S.
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