Photo: From CCTV News

"The scientists were supposed to heal the world, but they studied for years just to do criminal acts and kill people, which is extremely sad and disgusting," said Frenchman Marcus Detrez on Thursday in Northeast China's Harbin city while visiting the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), CCTV News reported on Thursday.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Japanese militarists secretly designated an area of 6.1 square kilometers in the Pingfang district of Harbin city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in 1936, establishing the world's largest biological warfare base. Organized into eight departments, one special squad and three field experimental sites, Unit 731 had a complete criminal system that ranged from live human experimentation to the development of biological weapons.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons, according to Xinhua.

Marcus said that it's a shame for every Western person who knows nothing about the atrocities of Unit 731 and he felt ashamed for them. 

"In China, everybody knows and the rest of the world needs to know. This is the door we are trying to open. We've also been learning a lot of new things, and the unimaginable atrocities committed by the Japanese army far beyond what we could have expected," said Marcus at the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, which was the first stop for him in China.

On Monday local time, at a handover ceremony held by the Chinese Embassy in France, Marcus donated 618 historical photos collected by his grandfather, Roger-Pierre Laurens, to the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. 

After the visit, Marcus, along with his friend Shijie, and Zhong Haosong, wrote "Peace and Justice" in Chinese, English, and French on the message board at the Exhibition Hall.

Following the visit in Harbin, they will continue their journey to Chinese cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Global Times