My Pictures: Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War of World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Imperial Japan. I visited this museum today, just outside Harbin…it was harrowing….some of the pictures I took…are difficult to post here. The railway brought the people for experimentation, torture and death.  Most of the ‘crimes’ were carried out by Japanese medical personal against the Chinese people. I wrote this poem shortly after I left the site:

Trees and sky darkened this morning.
Frost hardened tears,
a snake to the railway track.
I heard the pain, shout for a cure.

The doctors gave no refuge, no rest.
Thorns and needle pricks,
a bee pointed stinger.
Bare feet walking on ash covered ground,
fresh on the day.

Now, who tells this tale….
of snow cones in the dark
and souls left hanging from the ceiling.

Between the barbed wire and trees still bent…
all that is left of this dark protrusion
….. is rain filled graves and half-light streets.
To tell us how it was.