In brief
Members of a Japanese civil‑society delegation visited former Unit 731 sites in northeast China, expressing remorse and condemning historical revisionism. The delegation, composed of scholars, journalists, lawyers, and activists, urged Japan to “learn from history” and called for accountability for wartime crimes. Their visit was described by Xinhua with detailed remarks from delegation leaders and a statement condemning right‑wing revisionist rhetoric.
In late October, a Japanese civil‑society delegation travelled to Heilongjiang Province in northeast China to tour former Unit 731 sites, the notorious Japanese biological warfare division responsible for mass atrocities during World War II. The briefing of the visit, reported by Xinhua, noted that the delegation—formed by the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement—engaged with Chinese experts and scholars to confront evidence of wartime crimes and to accuse the Japanese government of historical revisionism.
Commissioned in 2013 in Tokyo, the association comprises scholars, journalists, lawyers, and civic activists who consider themselves a progressive force within Japan that continues to reflect on the country’s history of aggression. Shigenori Kanehira, a veteran Japanese media professional and member of the delegation, said that seeing the sites in person left him even more shocked than his prior knowledge had allowed. Mitsuhisa Fukutomi, the delegation’s university professor, also expressed similar sentiment, describing intense shame and sorrow upon witnessing the sites first‑hand.
During the visit, the delegation observed an exhibition hall that presented evidence of crimes committed by Unit 731. Takakage Fujita, the head of the delegation, described the act of injecting bacteria into living people as “demonic,” adding, “As a Japanese, I sincerely apologize to the Chinese people who perished in the disaster.” These remarks were part of a broader condemnation of the perceived rise of historical revisionism and right‑wing countercurrents in Japan, according to Fujita's remarks at a symposium with experts and scholars from the exhibition hall.
“As a Japanese, I sincerely apologize to the Chinese people who perished in the disaster,” said Takakage Fujita, head of the delegation.
Fujita highlighted that in recent years, some right‑wing politicians in Japan have made remarks that, according to him, “can only be described as absurd and ignorant,” and that they openly encouraged regional conflict. He urged that the truth could not be buried, stressing that decades of archaeological excavations and academic verification had “established an irrefutable chain of criminal evidence beyond doubt.”
The delegation’s visit was framed by Xinhua as a reminder that the truth was uncovered through archaeological and academic efforts and that the Japanese army’s acts of injecting bacteria into people were a dark chapter of history. The delegation expressed remorse in a public setting that included silence and solemnity at the exhibition hall, and dismissed the increasing tide of revisionist rhetoric in Japanese society. The invitation for Japan to “learn from history” was part of a broader, more generally anti‑war sentiment expressed by the delegation.
While the sources from Xinhua emphasize remorse, condemnation of revisionism, and an explicit apology, the article contains no alternative reports from other outlets. It reports the facts as presented: the facts that Japanese delegation leaders made statements, that they visited historical sites, and that they expressed remorse and condemnation of the crimes committed by Unit 731, without the author assigning truth to any one perspective. The account is based solely on the information made public by Xinhua on 2026-11-01.
In sum, the delegation’s journey to Unit 731 memorial sites in China was a public act of confronting WWII atrocities, marked by expressions of remorse, explicit condemnation of revisionism, and a call for Japan to acknowledge its past and learn from history, as detailed exclusively by Xinhua coverage.
