All language subtitles for Philosophy of a Knife - part 2

In this business,
anyone can make mistakes.

The scary thing is, in this case,
that mistake sends you to Heaven.

That was it. Some accidents
did happen in the unit.

There were few of them,
but they did happen.

Concerning the freezing experiments...
they did take place.

What for? To find a cure for
the Japanese army's soldiers.

That's what it was for.
That's why they froze arms and legs.

They had a polygon out in the open,
surrounded by a rather high mound.

Inside there were scattered
erect metal poles.

Subjects were tied to these poles,
and the bomb was placed in the center...

...which was detonated with
an electrical charge.

The shrapnel would fly everywhere,
hitting all the subjects.

Of course, they were taken
back to the lab and observed...

...how many got infected,
how badly, and so on...

Everything was based on scientific
methods there, because Isshi was
a microbiologist of the highest class.

He had studied in Germany,
and eventually surpassed them.

That's why he was interested
in very deep matters.

How does man react,
react as an organism?

Why did Japanese medicine get such a boost
after the war and exceed everyone else?

Because they had that
data in their hands.

How this medicine affects a man,
not a cat, or dog, or monkey.

It makes a huge difference.

Official working hours were 9 am
to 6 pm, just like everywhere else.

But, due to the fact that Mr. Ishii
was a night-owl...

...he frequently held his assistants
very late before he let them go.

But they had to come back
at 9 in the morning.

He came too, but he'd lock himself in his
study and sleep while they all worked!

One officer complained,
saying "he's a night owl..."

"He keeps us until late,
and then is back at nine..."

"...but then locks himself in his study,
ordering not to be disturbed for 3-4 hours!"

But who'd dare go to the general?
You had to be there working...

...wither you'd had
enough sleep or not!

Look at what Americans are
forced to do these days...

The Japanese still hate Americans
for Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

...they don't even try
to conceal this hatred.

In order to help this situation,
Americans have...

...in recent years, attempted to spread a
version of the story that said the...

...A-bomb was dropped at the request
of the Soviet Union...

...and no one believed them.

On the 9th of August
the war started...

Our army violated the pact
they had with Japan.

According to the pact we had the
legal right to attack them in
one year's time.

But we attacked in 1945...
that's not to our credit.

We violated international law
without a lot of talking.

The Japanese usually have two
religions, Shinto and Buddhism.

The burial ceremony is Buddhist,
the rest is the Shinto way.

Why didn't General Ishii
commit suicide?

As a real samurai,
he would have.

If our people had stopped the train,
he would have done it.

But they didn't stop it, so there was
no reason to commit suicide...

Someone resorts to suicide only
if there's no other way out...

He saw the way out and got away,
alive and with all his materials.

What would he commit harakiri for?

They boarded an ordinary train
meant to take refugees home.

Obviously the military men
changed into plain clothes.

There was no need for women
or children to change.

They took their records
and left quietly...

They got a green light all the way
to the end of the Pusan port...

...and when they got there,
a ship was waiting for them.

They got on, and I think
it was an American ship...

...because they took General Ishii
straight to America.

...because they took General Ishii
straight to America.

We could have had all that research
if our military wasn't so silly!

All of Manchuria was taken over
by Russians at that point...

On the way to the
Pacific Ocean and Korea...

That train went the whole way from
Harbin disguised as one for refugees!

No one even checked that train
to see who and what was on board.

General Isshi was on board, with all of his
assistants and all of their documents.

They passed us by,
right before our eyes!

They calmly got aboard the ship,
and no one paid them any attention.

While en route to Japan...

...Ishii warned them that anyone who said
more than was allowed would be listed
among suicide victims.

Then the Americans got hold of all those
materials, and the general himself.

Perhaps the Americans
were expecting him...

But I know he managed to pass
everything to the Japanese first.

Was it used for military purposes?
I doubt it...

They obviously used them to
give their medicine a boost.

We didn't see any
open warfare in Harbin...

...because the Japanese surrendered
before the regular army got there.

First the MVD (Ministry of lnternal Affairs)
and MGB (Ministry for State Security) arrived...

...to pick up the records of the
so-called "Russian Emigrants Bureau".

Those records were suspect,
so they got taken away.

The Japanese knew of their surrender,
and didn't take any offensive actions.

The Soviet consulate suggested we
work as interpreters in POW camps.

We had such a patriotic mood and
outlook back then that we helped our
homeland to recover after the war...

But when I got there I was viewed as
a Japanese agent sent to the USSR!

I had to prove that information wrong
with my fists on two officials...

...I smashed their faces, especially
the second man's, pretty badly.

He spent two weeks
in the hospital...

I told the head of the department
I'd simply kill the third one...

So he warned his officials
to be less talkative!

I was a document translator in the
government safety department of Khabarovsk.

I understood Japanese writing, so I
worked on translating the Kwantung
army headquarters archive other translators.

We didn't translate just
anything, you know...

We didn't pay attention unless
something of interest came up.

Our focus was on Biological
War Preparation and the like...

That was very interesting...

There were only two interpreters
familiar with medical terminology:

The late Platon Platonovich Plyachenko,
and myself.

We had to put together a dictionary
so the other interpreters could use it.

They were divided into two groups,
and taught terminology for about two weeks.

Without understanding the terminology,
further research would have been redundant.

They didn't understand a
thing on those papers...

To avoid mistakes, microbiology
experts were sent from Moscow.

They all had degrees as doctors of science,
and many of them were researchers.

An investigator, a microbiologist, a
prosecutor, an interpreter and the accused...

That was the team that
attended the process.

And no one could have questioned
them without special preparation...

...so Platon Platonovich and I
got more than our share of work!

If there was any misunderstanding,
one of us was sent over immediately...

"Make this clear, now!"

It was easy teaching a bacteriologist,
he'd grasp medical terminology fast.

Meanwhile a prosecutor had to
write down everything being said...

All the experts from Moscow
were very displeased...

Their research had been interrupted
because of some Japanese people...

But when the Japanese started talking,
the experts' eyes would suddenly widen...

"Oh, right, we were on the
verge of discovering that..."

But the Japanese had known
for several years then...

Generals were kept at a place called
Object 45, where Platon used to work.

They were generally kept in good
conditions over in POW Camp 16...

...the attitude towards prisoners, the food,
everything was exemplary for other camps.

They were fed better than Soviet Army
soldiers, I know that for sure...

Prisoners had a hospital set up
especially for them in Pereyaslavka.

They were accepted into the hospital
for treatments, whatever the case may be.

It even had an Ambulance service.
Prisoners were always in good shape.

And how did interrogations go?

The interrogation would start at 9 am,
after two hours tea and biscuits were
served to everyone, including the
suspects.

After 10-15 minutes,
when everyone had their tea...

...waitresses would collect everything and
the interrogation would resume until 1
o'clock, when there would be a
lunch break until two.

No other interrogation took place
in the evening, or any other time!

The trial was held following
international rules and conventions.

The suspects wore their uniforms,
minus ranks of course.

Officers had on their jackets,
and privates wore their shirts.

There was only one other private there,
a co-student of Platon - and myself of course.

We knew he was receiving
financial support from the military...

But who was paying for him, and how?
We only knew his surname, Ozaki.

We only knew he was a student, and left to
get his money... who knows where he went?

When he was found in one of the camps
he was brought to Platon and I...

He denied everything,
said he didn't know a thing...

But when he saw us his eyes
nearly popped out of his head!

He thought we worked for Soviet
intelligence while posing as students...

We were just Russian civilians, but when
he saw us, he started talking immediately!

As a rule General Yamada would say
that he didn't remember certain things.

When presented with a document
he had signed himself...

...he'd read it and then say:
"Oh yes, I remember now."

It can't be said that they were
sincere about their activities...

They admitted to things that could be
proven by documents, there was no way...

...of avoiding that, but they didn't
passionately share their discoveries...

I didn't work with the commander
of the Kwantung army much.

"Mr. Investigator" was a man about
33 years of age, 35 at the oldest.

He was either a major or a colonel,
he was sent over as an investigator.

He was supposedly very capable,
very knowledgeable.

He asked Commander Yamada
all of these questions...

Commander Yamada answered:
"Perhaps it happened, I don't recall."

The investigator then asked if the
Commander's memory was weak.

He answered: "Please, ask
Mr. Investigator how old he is."

I'm not sure, I think he answered "35".
So I translated it for him.

"I'd like to see what his memory's
going to be like when he hits 70."

Again the investigator was displeased,
he wanted the commander to say "yes".

The investigator started to
swear quite exquisitely...

I asked him: 'Shall I translate?'
"Go on!" he said...

So I gave the commander
a literal translation...

He became thoughtful, chewing
his moustache, and then said:

"I'm 70 now, my mother is 92 or 91.
The sort of pleasure Mr. Prosecutor could
have with her isn't clear to me."

"Don't they have swear words? "
The investigator asked me.

'That's right, they don't.'

"Why didn't you warn me? "
'Why didn't you ask?' I answered.

He thought I'd address him
officially as "Sir", but I didn't.

Our government demanded this topic
be included in the Tokyo process...

It was attended by 5 great countries:
The USSR, USA, China, the UK, and France.

The Chinese said "It was all aimed at us,
and we don't think it's necessary to include it."

When we started the Americans asked,
"What's there to talk about?"

"Is there any evidence that bacteriological
weapons were used against you?"

'Well, no.'
"So why do you bother bringing it up?"

That was the tone of the conversation,
and consequentially this subject wasn't
covered in the Tokyo trial.

They only had one successful operation
against the Chinese dropping fleas... nothing else.

We had no right to prosecute any of those
Japanese people, because they'd done nothing
to us.

There are secret bacteriological laboratories
in the United States, even today...

...but we can't arrest the lab assistants
and say "You're plotting against Russia!"

You can plot all you like,
as long as you don't take action.

We had no right to prosecute them
because they weren't our citizens.

We can prosecute criminals who kill each
other or one of ours, as that's subject
to international jurisdiction.

Not a single correspondent was admitted...
You know how they pulled that off?

They announce the process begins today,
but the process actually started yesterday!

No one was admitted
into the process...

The correspondents would raise their
voices for sure, but none of them were
ever actually allowed in.

That's the way it was handled!

Understand that if the process was kept
within regulations, crowds of
correspondents would have been invited.

To be honest,
it was a closed trial...

Only relatives of agents who worked
for the MVD, MGB, and the like
were admitted.

When I worked for the MGB,
I left the MVD...

...because so many Japanese had
already been sent back to Japan.

I got my hands on documents that the
head of a POW camp wrote to his...

...supervisors, asking how to deal with
captured American officers...

...because they all considered
themselves to be on vacation.

I read it several times,
unsure if it was slang or what...

I went to the head
of the department...

He said "Think of it this way,
being captured is an excuse to take a break!"

"ln America, 50% of your normal salary
will be transferred to your bank account
for the duration of your capture."

He gave me an example:

"They'd drop their bombs on Japan and then,
instead of traveling 4000 miles to Guam;"

"They'd head for Petopavlovsk, 1000 km
away and land at Eleninsky aerodrome."

"They'd be shipped back home about two
and a half years later, and all the while
money's going into their accounts."

But in certain camps
there was brutality.

An American might
be stripped naked and...

...if a Japanese guard used a sword,
he'd have a live practice subject.

That did happen...

But no one would bother to drag them
to unit 731, as that was miles away.

There were more
than enough locals.

In 1956, many Japanese people were
found guilty of killing each other in
POW camps.

All the bacteriologists were dressed up
neatly and brought from Moscow to the
House of Officers here in Khabarovsk...

...where they had a trial,
and then went back to Japan.

It was when we were about to
give them back their islands.

Those people were given back, but
the islands weren't... just in case.

It was done with a very
long-term perspective.

When there was a Japanese exhibition in
Niigata in 1968, we were invited over
there because our cities were twinned.

Many former Japanese POW's
attended that exhibition.

They were interested less in the
exhibition itself than in seeing Russians.

I remember one of them, who served
as a cook while in Russian prison...

...and his friend remembered what a great time
they had. A Japanese man standing by
wondered...

"Was everything in the Soviet
camps really that nice?"

"What's so strange about it?
Many people were in it."

"I was sent to the American camp.
I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy..."

The Soviets had the
right attitude back then.

In POW camp 16 there was a copy of
Stalin's order on display:

"Intolerance towards physical abuse
of prisoners by acting officers."

If an officer was caught
fighting he was punished...

...and only had a glass of water and
200 grams of bread, for 10 days.

This food was served by
the soldier who got beaten up.

After 10 days, the offender was sent to
solitary confinement in the officer's camp.

There used to be a newspaper called
"Nihon Shimbun" for prisoners of war,
which was published in Khabarovsk.

All such incidents were described
so all camp departments knew the situation.

That made a good impression
on those who stayed there.