The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 6

THE AUGUST 1983 WQHLP REPORT I rr mumi-M US backed Japan's on mentally sick tests from PETER McGILL in EXPERIMENTS on human guinea pigs by members of the Japanese germ warfare unit continued in Japan after the war with the help of secret funding from the American Government, an Observer investigation has confirmed. The ostensible purpose of the work was to develop vaccines to fight disease. Prisoners, babies and mental patients were all used in experiments in which the former members of Japan's germ warfare unit in Manchuria, Unit 731, were involved. The money for the experiments came from the American 406th Division, part of the occupation forces, which in 1948 had been given the job of looking after the production of Japanese vaccines. One of the projects undertaken was research into tsutsugamushi fever, also known as scrub typhus.

A number of Japanese doctors associated with Unit 731 were signed up as advisers. They included Takeo Tamiya, then head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Tokyo University, who had previously acted as a talent scout for 731, selecting promising research workers to be sent to Manchuria. Tokyo Also on the payroll were Dr Kiyoshi Asanuma of the Research Institute for Natural Resources, an entomologist who had studied insect carriers of contagious diseases as a member of 731, and Dr Masami Kitaoka and Dr Kaoru Okutu, both then at the National Institute of Health and both former 731 members. To test treatments for scrub typhus, the team instructed researchers to infect patients in a mental hospital at Niigata, on the west coast of Japan. Between 19S3 and 1956 infectious agents of scrub typhus, collected by 731 in Manchuria, were injected or smeared in ointment on to 118 patients.

Nine patients died, and another committed suicide rather than continue as a human guinea Pig. An investigation by the Tokyo Justice Ministry concluded that no permission from relatives had been obtained for the experiments, and there was no question of the tests being a form of treatment to cure the patients, as the hospital claimed. Earlier, Tamiya had been involved in experiments in which 12 convicts in a prison outside Tokyo were tested with typhus germs, in an effort to discover whether 'A' type typhus would change into type over time. The research was almost identical to tests carried out by Masaji Kitano, chief of 731, on 500 prisoners in Botanko Jail in Manchuria. One of those involved in these tests was Akira Shishido, then a young scientist working under Tamiya at Tokyo University, now Director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's National Institute of Health in Tokyo.

Last week Shishido was too busy to see The Observer. Frozen limbs Another example of brutality by an ex-731 member allowed to practise medicine after the war was the Nagoya nursery case, in 1952. Jiro Ogawa, head of paediatrics at Nagoya City University Hospital, instructed his staff to apply Colt bacteria to babies in his care to test whether they caused diarrhoea as he suspected. An epidemic of colitis broke out in the nursery, causing the death of one little girl. Jiro Ogawa and his brother TohrU published their results in a Japanese bacteriology magazine.

Tohru Ogawa was an army surgeon of the Nanking Detachment of Unit 731 during the war, when he worked on the use of typhoid and paratyphoid organisms for poisoning drinking water and food, Neither he nor his brother were ever punished for the Nagoya tests! Indeed, none of those invol-r ved in Unit 731 have been prosecuted for their post-war activities. Kozo Okamoto, who specialised in anatomy operations on Chinese and Russian prisoners at 731, is now the medical director of Kinki University. Shiro Sasahara, who worked on haemorrhagic fever for 731, is now at the Kitasato Research Institute. Hido Tanaka, the expert on the mass production of plague-carrying fleas, became a director of Osaka City University's School of Medicine. The most successful 731 graduate of all was Hisato Yoshimura.

He was responsible for frost-bite experiments, in which prisoners were forced out into frost at night, told to dip their hands in water, and then to expose them in the cold air until they froze. Sometimes Yoshimura tapped the frozen limbs of the prisoners with a Active again i The new KrakaSefrpriiiasf week on art; Island atthe original ite. The lessons of Krakatoa ROBIN McKIE finds that science is still learning from a volcano that The ecologists, from Hull University, are just completing three-week investigation on Ajjff 1f jj Although its islands are now coated in greenery, their forests are. still immature. A century after the blast the forests of mahogany and other ancient trees that once covered the.

island are still absent. The world's tropical rain forests are made up of trees that used to Hpurish on said Mr Peter Jones, a post" graduate ecologists on the Hull expedition, who returned home last week; These rain forests are being destroyed by humans. Yet the evidence from Krakatoa is that they will take more than a hundred years to That view was backed by Dr Norman Robson, a botanist at London's Natural History Museum, which is to launch a Krakatoa exhibition this week. Unfortunately, there are signs that Krakatoa scientific uniqueness is being The islands are protected reserves, But evidence of log-, giflg by local islanders and of turtle egg stealing by fishermen has. been discovered by the Hull team.

Certainly the name of Krakatoa has gripped the world since its devastation. It has even been made the subject of a Hollywood film, Krakatoa, East of Java an odd Krakatoa lies west oE Java. Evidently the romance of the East proved more alluring to its producers than any urge for accuracy. Yet Krakatoa needed no invented romance, for its destruction remains a potent reminder of our frailty in the fwraKaroa, now one or the now one world intriguing natural laboratories. In the gigantic eruption the island's volcano blasted almost three cubic miles of rpck into the air, hurled 100ft tidal waves on to the Java coast, killing at; least 36,000 people, and sent an atmospheric shock wave three times round the On its own, the explosion1 was remarkable event for it produced enough dust to cool weather throughout the world tor the next three years.

However; Krakatoa still has lessons to teach the world. After the ash clouds cleared, the first scientists to arrive found Only three small pieces of island left above All traces of life, had been (Obliterated under of glowing, fiery ash and pumice several hundred feet It was a desolate scene, vet within three years a gelatinous layer ot blue-green algae began to cover the ash and pumice fields. Then grass and ferns started to grow from seeds brought by birds to the islands. By the turn of the century young forests began to spring up, and a variety ot animals, including rats, snakes and lizards, up homes on Krakatoa. It is a story which suggests that biology is capable of encouraging adaptability.

In fact, the history of Krakatoa hides -a far more disturbing truth. stick to make sure they were frozen solid. After the war, Yoshimura used his of frostbite to become adviser to the Japanese" Antarctic expedK; dons. In; 1973 ne 'became the first president of' tite Meteorological Society, but was expelled in 1978 when' word leaked of Ms experiment in Manchuria. (Yoshimura vigorously denies that this was the reason, saying he left because he had TB.) Yoshimura does not deny that the frost-bite experiments took place.

But he claims that the maruta flogs), as the Chinese, Mongolian and Russ-; ian victims were contemptuously called, were actually-paid for their services. A baby that was used for tests belonged to a Japanese woman member of 731 and was he claims, For his pioneering work in environmental adaptation science' and his work as 'an the frost-bite doctor went on to receive Japan's highest accolade. On 29 April 1978 the Emperor's birthday the then Minister of Education presented Yoshimura with the Order of the Rising IWe understand INFORMATION gathered by British ecologists on Krakatoa the cluster of islands near Java almost wiped out by the world's greatest known explosion, 100 years ago this week-may provide crucial data tor' scientists battling to save the planet's endangered trees and plants. that withdrawals can be Judge braves death threats on Gelli case erupted 100 years ago face of nature's mighty forces. Those forces, we now know, were caused by the meeting of two gigantic subterranean geological plates.

One plate is slowly being shoved under the other, and gases, water and soil are also being pushed under. Eventually they boiled back to the earth's crust under Krakatoa. When the pressure grew too" the island simply blew apart with a bang that was heard in Africa and Australia. A total of 36,000 people were, officially, reported kellid although it was probably hearer 100,000. Strangely, those at sea fared best -such as the captain of the British' ship Charles which" passed close to the eruption during its climax," and who provided a vivid descrip-, tion of the event in his log.

At 11 15 a.m. on August 27, there was a fearful explosion in the direction of Krakatoa. We saw a wave rush right 7 on to Button Island, apparently sweeping right over the south part. This we saw repeated twice. The same waves seemed also to run right on to the Java shore.

'By 11.30 a.m. we were enclosed in a darkness that might almost be felt'. We had to grope about the and although speaking to each other, could not see each other. 'This horrible state and downpour of mud, continued until 1 .30 p.m., the roarings of the volcano and lightnings being something to help with the transport out of Argentina for the burial in Turin of the embalmed body of the toppled President's widow, Evita. Gelli is also believed to have helped to organise Peron's triumphant return to Argentina in 1973.

In that year, the head of the P2 was decorated with the Cross of the Order of San Martin, the country's highest honour, for services rendered to the Argentine In 1974, soon after Peron's death, Gelli received a further honour from the general's third wife and new president He was appointed economic counsellor to the Argentine Embassy in Rome. It was an honorary position but with practical advantage. Gelli' was given a diplomatic passport with which his movements around the world were greatly eased. Argentina's civil code prohibits the holding of a diplomatic passport by anyone other than a native-born or nationalised Argentine. Gelli is neither.

Judge Salvi is understood to have put in a formal plea for extradition with the Swiss and Italian authorities covering the fact that Gelli is known to have been granted four diplomatic passports by the Argentine Government during his seven-year term as economic counsellor. He was detained in the Geneva branch of a leading Swiss bank from which he was trying to withdraw about 35 million from an account. That money, according to Swiss and Italian investigators, originated in Roberto Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano's banking network in Latin America. Calvi was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in June last year soon after the collapse of Ambrosiano with about 850 million of debts. Police purge Valery Lukyanov, head of Russia's traffic police, has been replaced days after Interior Minister Vitaly Fedorchuk.

announced that the police force had undergone a big shake-up. He was succeeded by his deputy Viktor Piskaryov. made at any time, subject to myour having given 7 days written notice. IWe understand that the interest rate may vary. IWe would like the half-yearly A.

added to the Seven Day Account B. paid direct to meus fj (TkV ippropriaicbm) in Buenos Aires of death threats and a warning from the military authorities that he may be risking his career, Salvi has now turned his attention to what threatens to be one of the most politically explosive judicial inquiries ever held in Argentina. A slowrburning fuse on the P2 scandal in Argentina was lit with the disclosure last week that Salvi had ordered the immediate, freezing of assets held in Argentina by Gelli and other suspected members of his lodge. Gelli's exposed assets include 221b of gold worth roughly 100,000 which had been deposited in a small local private bank, Banco Shaw. Argentine police have also been keeping a check on two properties, one nearly 200 miles south of Buenos Aires and the other near the northern city of Cordoba, which are understood to be owned by Gelli.

According to court files, about 3,700 acres of land was bought between 1978 and 1980 by a registered private property company called Lindasiova. One property was originally owned by the late Alberto Vignes, who was Foreign Minister during the last Peron Government (1973-1976). Iin-dasiova's acting president is Arnaldo Bartffeld, whose brother Federico is Argentina's Ambassador to Romania. The P2's activities in Argentina were widely aired here for the first time last September when Juan Alemann, a former Secretary of State, alleged that Admiral Massera was a P2 member and had close ties with Gelli. The issue returned to being virtually taboo at Christmas when Judge Salvi's predecessor in the case, Judge Pedro Narvaiz, fled the country after being threatened with death.

Gelli is understood to have set up a network of ties within the Argentine political, diplomatic and military establishment over the years thanks to an early friendship with the late General Juan Peron and subsequently with Massera. It was in 1955, soon after Peron's temporary fall from government, that Gelli is believed to have used his extensive Vatican connections from JIMMY BURNS ARGENTINES may have lost their chance to unravel a long and complex history of political intrigue, financial corruption and murder with the disappearance of Licio Gelli after his escape from a Swiss prison 10 days ago. Gelli was a key witness in an investigation ordered by the Argentine authorities into the activities in Argentina and neighbouring Uruguay of Propaganda 2, or P2, the Masonic Order controlled by Gelli. In Buenos Aires it is widely believed that Gelli slipped into the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo last week under cover of strict media censorship and with the help of local military contacts. But his escape has forestalled possibly for ever the possibility of gathering conclusive proof of the P2 local involvement in military coups, assassinations, bribery and arms smuggling.

Some evidence on Gelli's extensive contacts in South America are contained in a crumpled, lightish green covered file in the. hands of Oscar Salvi, a local Argentine civilian judge. Salvi, 33, ambitious and courageous, last month ordered the arrest for conspiracy to murder of former junta member Admiral Emilio Massera the first senior military officer to be put in the dock since the 1976 coup. Massera's name was among about 900 on lists of people including politicians, bankers, industrialists, high ranking military officers, journalists and publishers all linked to P2 in Italy and elsewhere. The lists were found by Italian police when Gelli's villa in Italy was raided in March 1981.

In a continuing test of the Argentine judicial system's independence from the military regime Massera faced a further charge last Thursday in connection with acts of right-wing terrorism committed by outlawed Triple-A death squads. Braving a consistent barrage To: Dept7a.W.. Abbey National Building Society, FREEFOST, United Kingdom House, 180 Oxford Street, London W1E 3YZ. IWe enclose a cheque, numbered trY invested in a Seven Day at myour local branch me full details and an application card. Mininum investment 100.

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