The Japanese army occupied Manchuria in 1932. Japanese armed forces would soon storm China, South-east Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Japanese army occupied Manchuria in 1932. Japanese armed forces would soon storm China, South-east Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The plan to control the whole of East Asia was taking shape. 1932 was also the year when a top secret Japanese army unit - commanded by Dr Shiro Ishii - set up in Manchuria. Its mission was to experiment with and mass-produce bacteriological weapons. Over 14 years, the sinister Unit 731 "got through" thousands of human guinea-pigs supplied by the Japanese military police - the Kempetai. Twenty thousand Japanese citizens "were employed" producing plague and cholera to spread death among Allied troops.
The story of Unit 731 is one of the darkest pages in the contemporary history of Japan. At the end of the Second World War, these acts of barbarity were covered up. A double veil of silence masked the shameful secret. It was first of all a secret of war, one that everyone concerned had been ordered to keep for the rest of their lives. It became a state secret when the American authorities agreed to "forget" what had happened in return for accounts of the experiments carried out. Even today, Japan still shies away from bringing these atrocities into the light of day. Despite the revelations of Japanese and US historians and the evidence of of Chinese victims, the veil remained drawn. But more and more ex-members of Unit 731 - stricken by remorse in their old age - are now breaking their silence to admit the atrocities carried out in Manchuria.
"KIZU: The untold story of Unit 731" is a film about a secret kept for 50 years. It begins with footage of huge stocks of bacteriological weapons being dug out of the Manchurian plain where they were abandoned. It continues with the confessions of men and women who have made up their minds to exorcise this secret - their wound, their KIZU - from the depths of their memories.

Directed and Filmed by Serge Viallet ; A Marathon / France 2 Co-Production

-- Original title: "KIZU - Les fantomes de l'Unite 731" --