Visiting Unit 731 in Harbin, China

Wednesday, September 02, 2026

Sep 2, 2026 HARBIN

In this episode, I ride to Harbin, a large city in China. Nowadays, it's a cool city with lots to see and to do, but on the outskirts of the city lies a dark place that should not be forgotten.

Posted by Corky at 10:42 AM | 4 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

Alternate links: Google News | Twitter

Comments

Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

Well, that's one set of atrocities I don't recall ever knowing about.... there was a movie based on the events released last year, here's the trailer:

731 - Official Trailer | Starring Wu Jiang

"Director Zhao Linshan (The Assassins) directs 731, a horrific tale of human corruption and depravity set inside the notorious Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731.

Prisoners are kept and used for gruesome and torturous experimentation for the purpose of developing bacterial and chemical weapons.

Wang (Wu Jiang) is a prisoner assigned as an interpreter for his fellow captives; through his eyes, we see this harrowing story of suffering and survival."

www.youtube.com

Definitely not going to watch the movie.

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-09-02 10:47 AM | Reply

Grim stuff, indeed.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-09-02 12:36 PM | Reply

I occasionally wonder the degree to which especially empathetic/sensitive researchers may be haunted to a degree by the subjects they investigate. Iris Chang's suicide post-publication of her The Rape of Nanking certainly comes to mind. How people like Raul Hilberg - author of the groundbreaking The Destruction of the European Jews - kept their marbles properly aligned while immersing themselves in pure horror, I do not know. I remember a scene from Claus Lanzma s monumental Shoah where Hilberg holds up a piece of office paper, explaining this was the manifest for a transport to an extermination center. "This is" - he mentioned a number - "people," he said with a sigh. Madness could not have lurked far off.

#3 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-09-02 01:35 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Prolly why I've never been a horror movie fan; reality is grim enough.

There's also an apparently more realistic 1988 Chinese film about this event called Men Behind the Sun... which I also won't watch.

#4 | Posted by Corky at 2026-09-02 02:14 PM | Reply