ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the strategic official deployment of memories of Japanese atrocities in Chinese war museums. Brooks analyzes the chain of events that led to the opening in 1985 of the “Japanese Invading China Army Chemical and Biological Warfare Unit 731 Criminal Evidence Museum” at Pingfang near Harbin. From its establishment during the late 1930s until August 1945, Japan's top secret Unit 731 conducted chemical and biological warfare experiments on thousands of human victims, mostly captured Chinese citizens. The current scholarly literature in both English and Chinese has neglected the Unit 731 Museum at Pingfang in favour of three more prominent wartime commemoration halls at Nanjing, Beijing and Shenyang. Yet Brooks shows that neglect is unwarranted. The archives relating to the site offer a fascinating glimpse into the internal party debates which determined how and when China's the record of Japanese atrocities has been portrayed, and for what political ends.
