The South China Morning Post says that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has spoken out against the making and selling of toys that show Japan’s Unit 731, which did deadly biological warfare tests during World War II.
The toys, which were meant to be building block sets, were temporarily sold on Chinese online stores but have since been taken down. The PLA’s Junzhengping social media account argued that the toys make terrible war crimes seem less serious and hurt historical justice.
The account claimed, “There is no room for opportunism or ambiguity when it comes to national sentiment and historical justice.”
“Unit 731 is a symbol of the crimes against humanity that Japanese militarism committed during World War II. Its past is a deep wound for our country.
Chinese news outlets said that the toy packaging had slogans like “remember history,” “patriotic education,” “emotional enlightenment,” and “military-themed historical recreation.” Junzhengping called the toys a false representation of history and said:
“Merchants have turned bloody events into ‘laboratories’ for assembling things under the guise of ‘remembering history.'” No matter what their original goals were, this is an insult to national feeling and shows a wrong knowledge of history.
The PLA also asked e-commerce sites and authorities to make sure that information is checked more thoroughly to protect the importance of history.
What was the purpose of Unit 731?
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that Unit 731 was a secret Japanese research group for biological and chemical warfare that was set up in 1936 and directed by Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii. The team did cruel experiments on thousands of inmates, including Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Mongolian detainees.
Reports say that prisoners got sick with diseases including bubonic plague, anthrax, and cholera, had horrific procedures done on them while they were still alive, and Unit 731 even dropped fleas that carried the plague across Chinese cities. The PLA said that what the unit did was a terrible part of China’s history.