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JAPAN’S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH (JNIH)-
JAPAN’S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES (NIID)
AS HEIRS TO THE TRADITION OF MEDICAL SCIENTISTS
OF THE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE NETWORK

 Documented by Shibata Shingo,
Emeritus Professor at Hiroshima University,
Chairman, Civil rights Campaign against Wrong Location of JNIH-NIID

1-18-6 Toyama, Shinjukuku, Tokyo 162-0052;
Fax: 81-3- 3232-1356;
mailto:sshibata@mb.infoweb.ne.jp
 

Preface: The Japanese name of the JNIH is “Kokuritsu-yoboueisei-kenkyusho” (YOKEN in Japanese abbreviation), which literally translates “National Institute of Disease Prevention and Health.” But the JNIH called itself the “NIH” in English as if it were a prestigious institute like the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Such a name is only fraud. Accordingly, Lindee was right when she called it not “NIH” but “JNIH.” (See her book in the bibliography.) The various English names (e.g. “National Institute of Health,” “Preventive Health Research Laboratories” and “National Preventive Research Center” in the book by Williams and Wallace) are different English translations of the same institute.

On April 1, 1997 the JNIH was renamed: “The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID). In face of the wide denunciation of many misdeeds committed by JNIH from public opinion in Japan, the Health and Welfare Ministry could not but abandon its tarnished name and rename it as above. Without a sincere apology for its many misdeeds, and self-critique of its past and present, the inhumane and unscientific nature of the institute will continue to exist.

What was and is the JNIH-NIID? What was its origin and history? Herewith I would like to submit the truth about the JNIH-NIID to the fair-minded researchers and public. Any comment and/or information will be appreciated.

Shibata Shingo* (June, 1997)

* In this document, the first name of all mentioned Japanese persons is a surname.
 


CONTENTS
 

1. THE LIST OF THE DIRECTORS AND VICE-DIRCTORS OF JNIH

2. A LIST OF OTHER LEADING STAFF OF JNIH DURING ITS EARLY PERIOD

3. CHRONOLOGY OF INHUMANE MISDEEDS COMMITTED BY JNIH

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY


1. THE LIST OF THE DIRECTORS AND VICE-DIRECTORS OF JNIH

Directors (Term of Office) Vice-directors (Term of Office)  

Kobayashi Rokuzo (5/47-3/55) Kojima Saburo (5/47-3/55)

Kojima Saburo (3/55-4/58) Nakamura Keizo (8/56-4/58)

Nakamura Keizo (5/58-12/66) Yanagisawa Ken (10/58-3/70)

Komiya Yoshitaka (12/66-3/70)

Yanagisawa Ken (3/70-7/77) Kitaoka Masami (3/70-11/73)

Fukumi Hideo (12/73-7/77)

Fukumi Hideo (8/77-3/80) Murata Ryosuke (8/77-3/80)

Murata Ryosuke (4/80-3/81) Shishido Akira (4/80-3/81)

Shishido Akira (4/81-10/83) Hayashi Shigeo (4/81-10/83)

Hayashi Shigeo (11/83-3/88) Kanai Okimi (11/83-3/87)

Oya Akira (4/87-3/88)

Oya Akira (4/88-3/90) Tokunaga Toru (4/88-3/90)

Tokunaga Toru (4/90-3/93) Yamazaki Shudo (4/90-3/93)

Yamazaki Shudo (4/93- ) Moritugu Yasuo (4/93-3/97)

Note:

1. Boldface: Confirmed as a medical scientist who cooperated with the Biological Warfare (BW) network of the Japanese Imperial Army during the period of Japan’s invasion of China, Southeast Asian and Pacific countries.

2. Underlined: Confirmed as a medical scientist who committed vivisection or experiments on humans during the period of the invasion or/and the post-war period.

3. Since the beginning of the 1980s the old generation who had cooperated with the BW network retired. Most of the successive directors and vice-directors were educated by them.

 

Kobayashi Rokuzo: Adviser to the Laboratory of Infectious Disease Control (LIDC) attached to the Army’s Medical College as the headquarters of the BW network.

Kojima Saburo: During the occupation of China he was professor of the Institute of Infectious Diseases (IID) attached to the University of Tokyo (UT). He intensively cooperated with Unit 1644 as a detachment of the BW network at Nanking, where he committed the crime of vivisection of humans.

Nakamura Keizo: In 1944 Nakamura was promoted to Professor and the Chief of the 9th Department, IID. This Department dealt with Clostridium perfringens, Cl. novyi, Cl. septicum and so on. Nakamura was also responsible for development of vaccines. At that time, the IID was strongly supported and financed by the LIDC. JJJJIn this context, the IID as a whole should be regarded an important part of the BW network.

Komiya Yoshitaka: Member of the Institute of Health at Central China of Dojinkai Ass'n. (Dojinkai was the huge network of Japanese hospitals controlled by the Military Police in the occupied areas of China. Dojinkai belonged to the BW network.)

Yanagisawa Ken: During the occupation of China he was assistant professor at the IID attached to the UT, and Adviser to the LIDC. Through the LIDC he sent his various trial vaccines against tuberculosis, that is, Bacillus Calmette-Gueran (BCG), to Unit 731 for conducting experiments on Chinese youths. Through such human experimentation, he succeeded in creating dried BCG and thereby elevated himself in the eminent medical circles of post-war Japan.

Fukumi Hideo: During the war, he was an officer at the LIDC. Following his service as a director of the JNIH, he became President of Nagasaki University. He is now Honorary Fellow of the JNIH.

Murata Ryosuke: A first lieutenant as an Army surgeon at Unit 1644 at Nanking. As human experiments and vivisection were common practice at the unit, it is assumed that he was active in these. He is now Honorary Fellow of JNIH.

 


2.A LIST OF OTHER LEADING STAFF OF JNIH DURING ITS EARLY PERIOD

Besides the above-mentioned directors and vice-directors, many other staff of the JNIH were with the BW network during the period of the occupation of China and WWII. They* were as follows:

* Although their terms of service at JNIH were different, they were the official staff of JNIH.

 

Asahina Shojiro: Originally he was and is an entomologist He was Head, Team of Typhus Vaccine, Unit 731: after the war, Head, the Department of Entomology, JNIH. He is now Honorary Fellow of JNIH.

Ejima Shinpei: Head, Team of Dysentery, Unit 731; after the war, leading member of Team of Dysentery, JNIH.

Yaoi Hidetake: Conducted experiments of dengue on humans; after the war, Head, Department of Virus, JNIH.

Ishii Shintaro: Conducted experiments of dengue on humans: after the war, Head, Department of Parasites, JNIH.

Umezawa Hamao: With the BW network; contributed many papers to the Journal of Army Surgeons during the war; after the war, Head, Department of Antibiotics, JNIH. He was one of the most successful but corrupt medical scientists among the eminent medical circles of post-war Japan.

Yagisawa Yukimasa: Head, Team of Plants, Unit 731; after the war, researched antibiotics at JNIH.

Ando Kiyoshi: First Lieutenant at Unit 731; Then, Assistant Professor at Medical School, Keio Univ.; Head, Department of Screening, JNIH.

It also turned out that some leading staff of the BW network were invited to research at the JNIH, among them two confirmed war criminals.* They were:

Wakamatsu Yujiro: Major General as an army veterinary surgeon, Commander, Unit 100,** one of the most inhumane units of the BW network. He conducted many vivisections and human experiments.

Kaneko Jun’ichi: Major as an army surgeon at Unit 731. He was reportedly an expert of bacteria bombs.***

* Williams, P. and Wallace, D, Unit 731, NY: Free Press, 1989, p. 238. The authors refer to American intelligence sources. In post-war Japan, the JNIH was under the control and supervision of the U.S. Occupation Forces, especially the U.S. Army 406th Medical Laboratory as a branch of Fort Detrick. The U.S. Forces asked JNIH to continue some uncompleted tasks of the Japanese BW research under their strict supervision. I assume that they perhaps ordered Wakamatsu and Kaneko to continue to research at the JNIH.

** As to Unit 100 and Wakamatsu, see S. Harris, Factories of Death, NY and London: Routledge, 1994.

***For many years the JNIH continued to cooperate with Kaneko as one of the leading BW criminal as well as a representative of vaccine companies. Kaneko was one of contributors to the book Vaccines of Japan, 1967, and Vaccines of Japan, 2nd revised edition, 1977, both ed. by YOKEN-GAKUYUUKAI, Tokyo, in Japanese. (YOKEN-GAKUYUUKAI might be called “The Academic Society of the Researchers of JNIH” in English. Most of the contributors were the leading staff of the JNIH.) The professional titles of Kaneko as contributor were printed as “Expert of the Society of Bacteria Products,” that is, the Society of Pharmaceutical Companies of Vaccines, in the first edition, and “Expert of the Research Center of Vaccination” in the second edition. It further implies that there was an intimate cooperation between the JNIH and Kaneko as a BW criminal and a representative of the vaccine business even in the 1960s and 1970s.


3. CHRONOLOGY OF INHUMANE MISDEEDS COMMITTED BY JNIH

Their morals remained almost the same even after the war.* Since 1947 the JNIH, which, often under the control of the U.S. Occupation Forces and the ABCC as well as under the leadership of some directors and vice-directors, have conducted many misdeeds including biological experiments on prisoners, hospitalized babies and children, patients in mental hospitals, as well as soldiers of Japan’s Self Defense Forces. The following is the chronology of the confirmed misdeeds including human experiments, corruption in connection with criminal approval and screening of dubious biological products, unscientific negligence and cooperation with the U.S. Army’s Biological Warfare (BW) institutions. Accidents including fire, explosion, escape of lab animals and etc. which might have brought hazards to the staff and the public are omitted in this chronology.

* Lindee (1994) is right when she characterizes the ABCC and JNIH as “colonial science.” According to the ABCC scientists quoted by her, JNIH was “an emphatic Occupation agency” and an institute of “persons of a relatively inferior caliber.” Another ABCC scientist wrote, “it is commonly reported from various sources that ‘first class’ scientists will not affiliate themselves with the institute until this situation is remedied.”  

1947 21/5 JNIH was established by the order of the U.S. Forces, staffed with half of the medical scientists of the IID attached to the Univ. of Tokyo. Most of the leading staff of JNIH were medical scientists who cooperated with the BW network.

3/6 The U.S. Forces asked JNIH to cooperate with the ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Kitaoka Masami and Shishido Akira, following orders of the U.S. Forces, used rickettsia typhi in human experiments on prisoners of the Fuchu Prison, Tokyo.

1948 June JNIH set up its Branches at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cooperate with ABCC. Together with ABCC, JNIH treated the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as human guinea pigs and continued to infringe their human rights until its reorganization in 1975.

1951 Fukumi Hideo (Head, the 2nd Department of Bacteria) conducted bacteriological experiments on babies hospitalized at the First National Hospital. He wrote that he had let the babies drink what was called the alpha and beta types of Escherichia coli and found the materials “pathogenic.”

1952 Fukumi conducted human experiments with Eschenchia coli on babies hospitalized at the Orphanage of Nagoya City. A baby died in one hour.

1952-56 Kitaoka used rickettsia tutugamushi in experiments on patients in a mental hospital in Niigata Prefecture. As a result, eight patients died and one committed suicide.

1957 Fukumi succeeded in urging bureaucrats of the Health and Welfare Ministry (HWM) to set up the semi-compulsory vaccination system of dangerous influenza vaccine for almost all kindergartners and school children.

1959-61 In 1959 the United States stopped export of polio vaccines to Japan. As a result, polio disease spread among many children. To help Japan, the Soviet Union presented free, millions doses of excellent polio vaccines to the Japanese people. But JNIH sabotaged the effort and obstructed distribution of the vaccines to children. As a result, polio spread even further among children. The Japanese Organization of Mothers demonstrated against JNIH. In face of the protests JNIH could not but approve the Soviet vaccine and the spread of the polio infection was checked.

1962 Fukumi influenced the HWM to make the semi-compulsory vaccination system of kindergartners and schoolchildren, using the influenza vaccine, more compulsory.

1964 The government decided to transfer JNIH from Tokyo to a huge, non-populated area in the new science city of Tsukuba, 100km north-east from Tokyo. Almost all governmental institutes moved to Tsukuba, but only JNIH refused to move there on the pretext of “inconvenience.”

1965 Prime Minister Sato and President Johnson agreed to set up the “Japan-US Committee for Medical Cooperation,” which was called a medical version of the Japan-US Security Pact. Thereby, the cooperation between JNIH and the U.S. Army 406 Medical Laboratory was expanded to the BW cooperation between the U.S. laboratories’ network and those of Japanese laboratories. The former was led by Fort Detrick, the latter by JNIH. Since then, JNIH’s cooperation with the U.S. BW network has been continuing.

1967 9/6 The Daily Tokyo Shimbun reported that WHO warned JNIH that the side-effect of smallpox vaccine in Japan was too strong and dangerous.

1967-71 Fukumi and his colleagues used shigellois and its unauthorized preventive medicine in bacteriological experiments on young soldiers of the Self Defense Forces. Among 1089 of them, 577 fell ill with shigellois.

1968 Parents of children victimized by unnecessary vaccination sued for damages against the HWM. Although smallpox had disappeared in Japan, JNIH did not propose giving up compulsory vaccination for babies and infants. As a result, many babies and infants died or were made handicapped.

1970 Many victims of the smallpox vaccination were found all over Japan. The after-effects caused by the vaccination became a serious social problem. JNIH is to blame for its negligence.

1971-80 In advanced countries including the USA and the UK, compulsory smallpox vaccination was abolished, but in Japan it was not abolished until 1980 because of the negligence of JNIH. The number of children victimized by the unnecessary vaccination is estimated more than 20,000

1973 Many cases of human experiments committed by JNIH were disclosed and denounced by Takasugi Shingo, journalist; JNIH could not refute the accusations.

1973-74 Kawabata Shunji, one of leading staff of JNIH, advocated the antiseptic “AF2” widely used for foods, a profitable commodity monopolized by the Ueno Pharmaceutical Company, and blackmailed scientists who warned of the carcinogenic element in the antiseptic. Later its carcinogenic nature was confirmed and it was prohibited to be used by the HWM. As a result, the number of patients with stomach cancer reportedly decreased.

1973-75 Shishido Akira urged the leading staff of JNIH, who are also members of the Central Committee for Examination of New Medicines attached to the HWM, to approve the dubious measles vaccine which he had developed.

1974 An investigation team made up of members of the CDC and the NIH of the USA surveyed Japan’s compulsory influenza vaccination system for kindergartners and schoolchildren, and warned that such a system was ineffective and dangerous. JNIH ignored the warning. Many children were victimized by the dubious mixed diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine screened and approved by JNIH.

1976 Fukumi Hideo and other leading staff of JNIH strongly and successfully urged the HWM to make the semi-compulsory influenza vaccination system of 1974 in kindergartens and schools completely compulsory.

1981 Kitamura Takashi, as an expert on smallpox of JNIH and a government witness, committed perjury in the lawsuit against the HWM by parents of children victimized by unnecessary compulsory vaccination.

1982 June Many experiments on humans committed by JNIH were disclosed and denounced by Takasugi Shingo, a journalist; JNIH could not refute the accusations. July CDC’s MMWR (16/7 and 10/12) warned of the AIDS danger through blood products, but JNIH ignored it. Particularly Yamazaki Shudo (in charge of Japanese editing and translation of MMWR) and Kitamura Takashi (in charge of new emerging viruses) are to blame.

1983 Mar. MMWR (4/3) issued a strong warning of the AIDS danger through blood products, but JNIH ignored it. Yamazaki and Kitamura are to blame.

June Yasuda Jun’ichi, as Head of Dept. of Blood Products of JNIH as well as a member of the Study Team of AIDS and its Subgroup of Blood Products attached to the HWM, was informed of the deadly danger of unheated blood products. He himself submitted a proposal to stop the use of the blood products in question to the team and the subgroup, but continued to affix the governmental certificate stamps printed “Approved by NIH” to unheated blood products until his retirement in Dec. 1984. After retirement he was recruited by the Nippon Zouki Seiyaku Co., one of the five pharmaceutical companies which were later sued by the victims of the HIV-contaminated blood products.

11/7 JNIH’s crime of dishonest screening and labeling of antibiotics was disclosed by the mass media.

Aug. Many experiments on humans committed by JNIH were disclosed and denounced by Takasugi Shingo, a journalist; JNIH could not refute the accusations.

7/9 The Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office investigated JNIH and arrested one of the JNIH staff who was responsible for the dishonest screening and labeling of antibiotics.

7,14/10 Corruption of the leading staff including Director Shisihdo Akira in connection with approval of a dubious mumps vaccine was denounced by Takasugi Shingo in the Weekly Post; JNIH could not refute the accusation.

25/10 Director Shishido Akira held himself responsible for the crime of improper screening and labeling, and had to resign from his post, but was honored as Honorary Fellow of JNIH.

1984 May Takasugi Shingo denounced the corruption and unjustness of JNIH; the latter could not refute the accusations.

June Takasugi Shingo denounced the human experiments committed by JNIH; the latter could not refute the accusations.

Aug. Kitamura Takashi, one of the leading staff of JNIH, published a paper “Introduction toward Biohazard,” which was later discovered by Shibata Shingo to be a plagiarism.

Sept-Dec. Kitamura Takashi, cooperated with Dr. Abe Takeshi, who, as one of the leading doctors of hemophilia, was later prosecuted by The Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office. Through this cooperation Kitamura found the JNIH-approved blood products caused HIV infection among patients under the care of Dr. Abe, but neither asked him to stop using them nor reported their danger to JNIH or the HWM.

1985 May Oya Akira, one of the leading staff of JNIH, experimentally injected a disapproved Japanese encephalitis vaccine into 199 hospitalized children without informed consent of their parents. (Later reported in the Tokyo Shimbun, 11/11/1990)

July The HWM approved the safe and heated blood products, but JNIH did not recall the JNIH-approved and HIV-contaminated blood products. JNIH further continued to fix its governmental certificate stamps to the HIV-tainted blood products until the end of 1985.

1986 July JNIH announced its plan of transfer to Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, one of the most densely residential areas of Tokyo, but in its meetings with the residents it concealed its dangerous experiments with pathogens, genetically modified microorganisms, chemicals, radioisotopes and lab animals.

1987 June Fukumi Hideo and other leading staff of JNIH published a report “Study on Prevention of Influenza Infection,” but could not refute the critique of the scientists, clinical doctors and the public that the JNIH-approved influenza vaccine was not only ineffective but also dangerous to infants and children. Fukumi and his group could not avoid confessing that there was no evidence that proved the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine. Nevertheless, they contended that the influenza vaccine would be effective to the “risk group” including the aged and patients of diabetes and other diseases.

Nov. Dr. Takahashi Kousei of the Medical School, the University of Tokyo, in his book, Dangerous Influenza Vaccine, proved that Fukumi and his group had already been aware of the ineffectiveness and danger of their influenza vaccine in 1956 when they urged the HWM to set up the compulsory vaccination system of the influenza vaccine for all kindergartners and schoolchildren. Dr. Takahashi denounced the JNIH as an “institute under patronage of bureaucrats and pharmaceutical business.” Fukumi and his group could not refute it.

Dec.-1989/Nov. Nerome Kuniaki experimentally tested two kinds of genetically modified influenza vaccines three times on about 40 hospitalized children without informed consent of their parents. (Later reported in the Weekly Sunday Mainichi, 7/8/1990)

1988 13/12 JNIH mobilized the riot police to construct its laboratory at Toyama, Shinjuku-ku and to suppress the residents and to arrest thirty students of Waseda University.

1989 22/3 128 plaintiffs sued the HWM and the JNIH, demanding the stoppage of construction of JNIH laboratory. April The HWM, following the proposal of JNIH, set up a compulsory vaccination system of the new mixed MMR vaccine of measles, mumps and rubella for babies, but in a few months it was revealed that the vaccine was dangerous. Nevertheless, HWM, following the JNIH, continued the compulsory vaccination. JNIH let several pharmaceutical companies make several types of the vaccine with several strains of rubella and compared the side effects of them. Until 1993 about 1,800 among 1.8 million babies injected with the MMR vaccine died or were made handicapped of encephalitis caused by the vaccine. Later Yamada Akio, Head of Laboratory of Mumps of JNIH, questioned closely by a father of a victimized baby, could not but admit that the compulsory vaccination was a form of human experimentation conducted on babies. 22/7 Many skulls and bones of more than 100 humans were unearthed at the site where JNIH, backed by riot police, constructed its laboratory. As the site was the former site of the LIDC, that is, the headquarters of the BW network of Japanese Army, they were suspected of being the remains of the victimized Chinese experimentally killed by the medical scientists of the BW network. The HWM backed by JNIH asked the Mayor of Shinjuku-ku to cremate them, but the residents demanded that the government hold a memorial service for them and to return them to China. Since then the Mayor has kept them in custody in a funeral home. 22/9 Asahi Shimbun, one of the Big Three newspapers, reported about the cooperation between one of the leading staff of JNIH and the U.S. Army Walter Reed Institute.

Oct. The Doctors’ Association of Maebashi City warned of the dangerous side effects of the mixed MMR vaccine to the HWM, but HWM and JNIH ignored it.

22/12 Mainichi Shimbun, one of the Big Three newspapers, gave extensive coverage to the report that the staff of JNIH and other institutes cooperated with Fort Detrick and criticized the cooperation with U.S. Army’s BW network.

1990 9/4 The Daily Tokyo Times reported on JNIH’s “cooperation” with the U.S. Army Institute of Pathology and expressed its concerns about a kind of Japanese-US BW network. 1/5 The Weekly University of Tokyo Shimbun reported that Kurata Takeshi, Head of Dept. of Pathology, JNIH, had cooperated with the U.S. Army Institute of Pathology. It doubted JNIH’s “cooperation” with U.S. BW network. 11/12 In the lawsuit against JNIH, the plagiarism of Kitamura Takashi was proved and denounced by Shibata Shingo, and Kitamura and JNIH could not refute it. Since then JNIH has been criticized as an institute which advocated plagiarism by its leading staff.

1991 Aug. The inferiority of scientific productivity of JNIH staff (the number of papers per capita) was statistically proved by Dr. Yamazaki Shigeaki at the Jikei Medical School.

1992 March Hirokawa Ryuichi, journalist, assisted by Shibata Shingo, denounced JNIH as a criminal institute which affixed the governmental stamps the HIV-contaminated blood products.

Sept. Without agreement of residents, Waseda University and Shinjuku-ku, JNIH moved to a new laboratory at the old site of the BW headquarters of the Japanese Army at Toyama, Shinjuku-ku.

13/12 The HWM lost a lawsuit against it at the High Court of Tokyo filed by the parents of many children victimized by ineffective and dangerous influenza vaccines. The HW Minister apologized for their misdeed but JNIH, which was most to blame, did not do so.

1993 April The HWM was compelled to order a stop to vaccinations using the mixed MMR vaccine, but JNIH did not recall the vaccines with the JNIH-approved governmental stamps. As a result JNIH served the pharmaceutical companies’ profit motives.

July The HWM lost a lawsuit against it at the High Court of Nagoya filed by the parents of many children victimized by dangerous influenza vaccines.

Aug. Several bereaved Chinese families of the victims killed by the BW medical scientists visited the site of JNIH and wanted to lay flowers at the place where the skulls and bones were unearthed. But JNIH mobilized the guards to prevent the families from entering the site. Thereby JNIH underscored its inhumane attitude.

13/12 The HWM confirmed the ineffectiveness of the influenza vaccine and decided to abolish the compulsory vaccination system of influenza vaccines on infants and schoolchildren. But JNIH, as the institution which should be most responsible for the system, did not apologize for its misdeeds to the parents and public.

1995 Jan. Director Yamazaki Shudo of JNIH and Nerome Kuniaki, Head of Influenza Laboratory, JNIH, went to Kobe immediately after the Kobe Earthquake, and in the name of the HWM and with tax money, decided to order influenza vaccines for 170,000 persons from pharmaceutical companies, although vaccines for 10,000 were in stock. JNIH contended that the influenza vaccines would be “effective” for the aged citizens in the devastated cities destroyed by the earthquake. The result was that the intrigue of Yamazaki and Nerome was boycotted by most citizens and only 2,700 were injected with the vaccine. In any case, Yamazaki and Nerome brought huge profits to the companies.

1996 16/2 As a result of the 8-year lawsuit by the victims of HIV-infection with JNIH-approved unheated blood products, the HW Minister apologized for the misdeeds of the HWM.

27/2 Director Yamazaki Shudo of JNIH, as a witness in court in the lawsuit of Shibata and et al. against JNIH demanding halting experiments in the residential area, said that the HWM, not JNIH should be responsible for the HIV-infection with the JNIH-approved unheated blood products.

17/3 Yasuda Jun’ichi, as ex-Head of Department of Blood Products of JNIH, wrote: “I am responsible for the present HIV-disaster brought by my ignorance and indecisiveness and ready to face any accusation of my responsibility,” in his reply to Shibata’s letter of question. Yasuda was the only JNIH scientist to admit the JNIH’s responsibility for the HIV-infection with the JNIH-approved blood products. All other leading staff shifted the responsibility onto him.

April Shibata, in his paper published in the May issue of Asahi’s monthly Ronza, systematically and objectively proved the JNIH’s criminal responsibility in spreading HIV-infection with the JNIH-approved blood products, and JNIH could not refute the accusation.

28/5 In a meeting within JNIH, a concerned staff member of JNIH, Dr. Kawanaka Masanori proposed Yamazaki Shudo to admit JNIH’ responsibility for the HIV-disaster. Kawanaka said to the effect that if not, another tragedy such as the HIV-infection through JNIH-approved blood products might repeatedly occur. To him Yamazaki replied that he was determined to admit never the responsibility before the public. He insisted to the effect that if he should admit it, there would be the possibility that JNIH lose the case in the lawsuit filed by the residents around JNIH. Yamazaki also slandered Drs. Honjo and Arai as “subversive” within JNIH. (Later Yamazaki’s speech appeared in a JNIH journal Gakuyukaihou (September 1996, in Japanese).

13/6 The HW Minister admitted in the House of Councilors of the Diet that JNIH was responsible for the HIV-infection with the JNIH-approved blood products, but Yamazaki Shudo has neither admitted JNIH’s responsibility nor apologized for it.

June Kurihara Atsusi, the father of a baby victimized with the dangerous MMR vaccine, in his paper in the July issue of Asahi’s monthly Ronza, disclosed and proved that the compulsory MMR vaccination initiated by JNIH was nothing but human experiments on babies; JNIH could not refute it.

5/7 Mainichi Shimbun reported that Matsuno Tetsuya, Head of Rubella and Varicella Laboratory, JNIH, secretly contracted with a pharmaceutical company to be rewarded one million Yen monthly for his cooperation. This is reported as one of the typical examples of corruption of the leading staff of JNIH. Nov. Tashiro Masato, Head of 1st Dept. of Viruses, JNIH, as an editorial supervisor of the book entitled New Type of Influenza AX, warned the public of the danger of a new emerging influenza virus and urged the public to be injected with the influenza vaccine. 2/12 The Department. of Justice of the USA announced that it put the names of the Japanese who had cooperated with Unit 731 on the watch list to ban entering the USA. Shibata later made public that in 1995 the DOJ had asked him to give information about three Honorary Fellows of JNIH as such war criminals.

1997 Jan. Influenza spread among people, particularly the aged. Through mass media Tashiro and Nerome, the leading staff of JNIH, propagated that the influenza vaccine was “effective” especially for the aged and recommended it to them. Following their advise, the HWM ordered all social welfare facilities for the aged to inject the vaccine into as many people as possible. Thereby JNIH and HMW served the pharmaceutical business’ profit motives. 20/2 The Daily Kogyou Shimbun reported that Tashiro Masato, Head of 1st Dept. of Viruses, admitted that there were no scientific data to prove the efficacy of the influenza vaccine. April In face of wide public denunciation of its misdeeds, the JNIH was pressed to change its name. Its new name is “The National Institute of Infectious Diseases.”

6/6 The Weekly Friday published Shibata’s paper on Yamazaki’s irresponsible and arrogant attitude toward the victims of the JNIH-approved blood products on the basis of his speech published in the JNIH journal Gakuyukaihou (September 1996, in Japanese). Critically commenting on Yamazaki’s slander of Drs. Honjo and Arai, Shibata wrote that if someone should be called as “subversive” within JNIH, he is neither Dr. Honjo nor Dr. Arai, but Yamazaki , because he went too far to refuse to admit the JNIH responsibility of the HIV tragedy. By many misdeeds, he has done his utmost to make the public be angered at JNIH. Shibata proposed Yamazaki to apologize the victims and public for many misdeeds of JNIH as soon as possible and to ask their cooperation to let the government finance a new larger laboratory at a vast site in an unpopulated area. Shibata promised that the residents, WU and the City Assembly would be ready to cooperate with JNIH-NIID, if the latter change its hitherto insisted wrong policy.


4.BIBLIOGRAPHY

(all in Japanese except the books of Harris, Lindee and Williams & Wallace, as well as Shibata’s some papers)

Harris, S.H. (1994) : Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45, and the American Cover-up, London & NY: Routledge.

------. (1995): “Preface to the Paperback Edition.” Factories of Death. London & NY: Routledge.

Hirokawa Ryuichi (1992): Accusation from AIDS. Tokyo: Tokuma-shoten.

Kenmochi Kazumi (1970): Crimes of Modern Science. Tokyo: Shinsensha.

Kurihara Atsushi (1996): “The MMR Vaccination was Human Experiments.” Bimonthly Treatment, May/1996

------. (1996): “The MMR vaccination and the Criminal Misdeed of the HWM.” Monthly Ronza, July/1996. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.

Shibata Shingo (1988): How to Defend the Right to Life: For Human Rights in the Age of Biotechnology. Tokyo: Banseisha.

------. (1989): “The U.S. Biological Defense Program and JNIH’s Cooperation with it.” Weekly Economist, 14/11/1989, Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun.

------. (1990a): “War Crimes Haunt Japan's Genetic Engineers,” International Perspectives in Public Health, Volume 6, Toronto: International Institute of Concern for Public Health.

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------. (1996b): “The Atomic Victims as Human Guinea Pigs.” Seisen Review, No. 4.

------. (1997b): “Meaning of the Decision of U.S. Department of Justice to Forbid Ex-members of Unit 731 to Enter USA: Possibility of 3 Honorary Fellows of JNIH on Black List.” Monthly Ronza, June 1997. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.

------. (1997c): “Why does JNIH Refuse to Admit the Responsibility of HIV-Tragedy?” Weekly Friday, 6 June 1996. Tokyo: Friday Pub. Co..

Lindee, M. Susan (1994): Suffering Made Real: American Science & the Survivors at Hiroshima.

Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

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------. (1973b): Human Experiments in Japan. Tokyo: Mikasa-shobo.

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------. (1984b): Black Capsule. Tokyo: Goudou-Shuppan.

Taketani Mitsuo (1967): How to Think about Safety. Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten.

Williams, P. & Wallace, D. (1989): Unit 731: Japan’s Secret Biological Warfare in World War II. New York: The Free Press.

Yamazaki Shigeaki (1991): “Life Science in Japan in the Light of Number of Papers.” Monthly Science. August 1991, Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten.

Acknowledgment: The author is grateful to Mr. Hal Gold, author of Unit 731: Testimonies (Yenbooks, Tokyo, 1996), for his kind suggestions.

 

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