SKIRMISHER

Japanese Akiro Makino, now 84, was a former medical officer in Japan’s WWII navy who admitted to experimenting on the bodies of about 30 Filipino prisoners of war, including women and children.

Akira Makino, 84, a former officer of the medical corps of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s No.33 patrol unit, said the experiments on live prisoners began in December 1944, shortly after he was assigned to Zamboanga air base on the Philippines’ Mindanao Island.The experiments, which included amputating arms and legs, suturing blood vessels and abdominal dissections, continued until February 1945, and resulted in the deaths of some 30 people, including women and children, he said.

After the experiments, the captives were strangled with a rope to make sure they were dead, he said, adding that their bodies were buried and the deeds kept strictly secret.

“I would have been killed if I had disobeyed the order,” Makino said. “That was the case in those days.”

US forces landed on the Philippine island in March 1945, sending Japanese soldiers into hiding in the jungle.

via COURIER MAIL

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