英语新闻丨日本原731部队成员清水英男指认谢罪

Hideo Shimizu, a former member of Unit 731, the notorious germ warfare detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, stood with his head bowed and hands folded on Tuesday morning in front of the Apology and Peace Monument in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

清水英男（Hideo Shimizu）是二战期间日本侵华实施细菌战的731部队的前成员。8月13日，他低着头，双手合十站在位于哈尔滨的“谢罪与不战和平之碑”前表示忏悔。

"I would like to express my sincere apologies and repentance to the Chinese victims, the victims of Unit 731, and the deceased," he said.

他说：“在这里我真的深感抱歉，向逝去的受害者表达哀悼，因为我们的种种暴行给受害者带来了巨大的灾难，我们深感抱歉。”

After 79 years, Shimizu, who is now 94, returned to Harbin, where Unit 731 was once located, to expose and testify to the crimes committed by his detachment during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

时隔79年，现年94岁的清水英男重返让他背负一生沉重记忆的原点——位于中国哈尔滨的侵华日军第七三一部队旧址（现为侵华日军第七三一部队罪证陈列馆），揭发731部队在抗日战争（1931-1945）期间犯下的罪行。

He boarded a flight from Osaka's Kansai International Airport on Monday morning and arrived in Harbin in the evening.

12日，刚过完94岁生日的清水英男从日本大阪关西国际机场出发，并于晚上抵达哈尔滨。

On Tuesday, Shimizu visited and identified the notorious Japanese force's old guardhouse sites, the headquarters building, the bacteriology laboratory, the special prison and the frostbite laboratory at the Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by the Japanese Army Unit 731, before publicly expressing his repentance at the museum's Apology and Peace Monument.

清水英男先后到卫兵所旧址、本部大楼旧址、细菌实验室遗址、特设监狱遗址、冻伤实验室旧址等地指认，后来到“谢罪与不战和平之碑”前进行忏悔谢罪。

Shimizu was about 14 years old and among the last batches of Unit 731 Youth Corps members when he was sent to Harbin in March 1945. He spent more than four months witnessing the war crimes committed by his unit, including the cultivation of pathogens, human dissections and experiments on humans.

1945 年 3 月，清水英男大约14岁，是731部队“少年队”最后一期的成员。当时他被派往哈尔滨，4个多月的经历目睹了731部队犯下的战争罪行，包括病毒培养、人体解剖和人体实验。

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin in 1935.It was the nerve center of Japanese germ warfare in China and Southeast Asia. At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people across China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.

731部队于1935年建在今黑龙江省哈尔滨市平房区，是世界历史上规模最大的细菌武器研究、实验及制造基地，至少有3000人在这里被用于人体实验，全国有30多万人被日本的生物武器杀害。

Shimizu recalled the day when he was taken to the herbarium inside the lab complex. "There were all kinds of human specimens inside — the heart, the stomach, the lungs. I was shocked by the brutality."

清水回忆起他被带到实验室大楼内标本室的那一天。他说：“里面有各种各样的人体标本——心脏、胃、肺，我对那些残忍的行为感到异常震惊。”

On Aug 14, 1945, Shimizu fled China with the retreating Japanese forces.

1945年8月14日，清水随撤退的日军逃离中国。

Before leaving China, Unit 731 tried to gun down all survivors and destroy incriminating evidence of the atrocities it committed.

在离开中国之前，731部队试图枪杀所有幸存者，销毁其所犯暴行的罪证。

After returning to Japan, Shimizu was haunted by the guilt of what he saw and what he was forced to participate in.

回到日本后，那地狱般的景象一直在他的脑中挥之不去。

In 2016, he revealed his identity as a former Unit 731 member and began to expose the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army through public speeches and interviews, aiming to reveal historical truths.

2016年，他公开了自己前731部队成员的身份，并开始通过公开演讲和采访揭露日本陆军犯下的暴行，揭示历史真相。

"Historical facts cannot be covered up," Shimizu wrote in a signed article published on Monday in People's Daily. "I am determined to return to the site of Unit 731 before I die to express my deepest apologies to the Chinese people who had been hurt, and hope to arouse more people's reflection and vigilance, cherish the hard-won peace, and avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of war."

清水在人民日报发文《历史事实不容掩盖》：“历史事实不容掩盖。我决心在有生之年回到侵华日军第七三一部队旧址，向受到伤害的中国人民表达最深切的歉意，也希望唤起更多人的反思和警醒，珍惜来之不易的和平，避免战争悲剧重演。”

On Saturday, before departure from his home in Nagano prefecture, Shimizu told Xinhua News Agency that it was his "first return to China in 79 years" and he had two wishes.

8月10日，清水在离开长野县的家中之前告诉新华社，“时隔79年重返中国，”清水说自己有两个心愿。

"One is to sincerely pray for those who perished at the hands of Unit 731 and to apologize to their families, while the other wish is to learn more about the impact of the plague released by the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin after the war, a topic on which there is little testimony in Japan," he said.

“一是想以个人名义真诚地为那些惨遭731部队杀害的人祈福，向受难者家属谢罪。二是想了解日本战败后哈尔滨当地的鼠疫受害情况，这方面日本的证言还非常少。”

Jin Chengmin, curator of the Harbin museum, said that most of Unit 731's former members are now deceased.

731部队罪证馆馆长金成民表示，731部队的前成员大多已经去世。

"Shimizu is currently the only surviving member who is willing to expose the unit's crimes to the public, and he is likely to be the last Unit 731 member to return to Harbin. Before him, there were four who did the same," Jin added.

“‘731部队’名簿记录了3600多名成员，绝大多数已不在世，清水英男是第5位返回哈尔滨现场指认、谢罪的原队员，也可能是最后一位。”金成民说。

Apology and Peace Monument

n.“谢罪与不战和平之碑”

Japanese Imperial Army

n.日本陆军

Harbin museum

n.731部队罪证馆