Address: No 21 Xinjiang Dajie, Pingfang district, Harbin, Heilongjiang province Opening hours: 9 am to 5 pm Admission: Free
Exterior of the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Heilongjiang province, Northeast China [Photo/IC]
Unit 731 of the Japanese Army was established in 1933. It committed heinous crimes against humanity, including human experimentation and biological warfare. The unit was dismantled in August 1945, just before Japan’s surrender in World War II. As the Japanese forces retreated, most of the buildings were destroyed, shaping the current layout of the site. The Unit 731 site is the largest biological weapons research, experimentation, and production base in world history. It stands as a significant modern historical relic from Japan’s invasion of China.
Today, 23 key locations, including the barracks, plants, and laboratories, at the site are listed collectively as a nationally protected cultural heritage site, covering a total area of 248,000 square meters.
On Aug 15, 2015, a new building designed as a “dark box” was completed and opened to the public, known as the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, with a collection of 12,000 artifacts. It is dedicated to showcasing evidence of the germ warfare perpetrated by the Japanese army. The exhibition consists of six sections: "The Japanese Army’s Biological Warfare in China", "Unit 731", "Japan’s Biological Warfare Headquarters", "Human Experimentation", "Development of Biological Weapons", and "Implementation of Biological Weapons”, “Destruction of Evidence and Trials". The total building area covers 9,997 square meters.
