Part 3: Experiments-731
January 23, 2026 at 2:42 PM
The girl, known as Emilia, was taken to Pingfang District, near Harbin City, to a military research center. Here she was treated for external physical injuries and her wish to be called "Luna" rather than Emilia was finally heard. There was no "L" in Japanese, so they called her more like "Runa", making a name out of two characters. She lived in the underground laboratory of the 1st Division, in an empty cubicle inhabited by soldiers who had transferred to Unit 516 and gone to Qiqihar in northern Manchuria. Luna was on the government payroll as half a human being, so she received half a soldier's ration and half a private's pay, which she didn't need at all, so this tiny amount of money was taken by the squad leader.
All this time, the research site was being prepared for an interesting and unique experiment, which was the first time Japanese scientist-officers had ever been involved in an experiment. The experiment was complicated and expensive, and the chance of success was minimal, but the Japanese government had no problem lobbying for it, being very interested in the potential results. Hard to believe, but a little girl with certain manipulations with her body could change the course of the war, wiping out in the dust all the advantage of the Anglo-American war machine alone. Finally, day X came.
Luna was led out into a sterile white room with only one leather chair bolted to the floor and sat on it. Next, the soldiers brought in several complex medical mechanisms, stripped the girl and connected several dozen electrodes to her. Then they brought in a whole table with surgical instruments of various purposes, and finally, the main "guest" of today - a mustachioed officer with round-rimmed glasses entered the room, today he was wearing a medical gown, mask and gloves. This was General Shiro Ishii, the commander of Unit 731, who had been honing today's actions for months.
Two soldiers with assault rifles stood at the door, a group of assistants gathered around Ishii, and several people filmed the proceedings on a bulky movie camera set up in the corner. Several more scientists, including Masaji Kitano, stood behind the protective glass above and watched the proceedings from the observer's room. Ishii commanded:
- Experiment 731 is hereby ordered to commence.
The general took a syringe with a clear liquid, which he injected into Luna's carotid artery. The girl quickly relaxed and stared calmly ahead, seemingly unaware of anything going on around her. Shiro Ishii took a scalpel and slowly carefully cut the skin on the top of her skull, removing it along with her hair and handing it to the assistant. The general then took a Gigli medical saw (it looks like a thin wire) and began cutting into her skull from behind, trying to go along the fusion point of the skull bones, making his job easier. After 10 minutes of work, Shiro Ishii removed the top back part of the girl's skull and gave it to another assistant.
Now the general could see the brain. Holding something out in the air with his hands, Ishii took a small pointed iron ampoule, which he filled from a large syringe with some bright green liquid, injecting about half of it. Then he took precise aim and sharply inserted the ampule into one of the large vessels of the brain, fixing it so that the upper protruding part blocked the insertion site and prevented bleeding. Immediately afterward, Ishii took aim at the spot just before the ampoule was inserted and injected the rest of the green liquid into it.
- The implant is in place, the closed loop modified blood circulation has been started and adjusted. Proceeding with assembly.
After saying this to the camera, Ishii took the part of the skull he had cut off from his assistant and smeared some glue on the cut, then glued it back in place. He then positioned the cut scalpel roughly as it had originally been and sewed it in place with ordinary medical threads. Luna's appearance was restored, and the General now exhaled in relief.
- The surgical part of the experiment is complete. I will proceed to the military tactical part.
Ishii rolled a steel box on wheels filled with liquid nitrogen to a chair and lowered the girl's hand into it. After waiting a few minutes, he rolled back the device and lifted Luna's hand, discreetly took a hammer from the assistant and struck the icy part of the hand with a full swing. And it shattered into small pieces with a crack, all over the room. Shiro Ishii began to wait. However, during the five minutes of waiting, absolutely nothing happened.
- I see. Yoshimura, cross out the first point.
One of the officers in the observer's room made a notation in his officer's clipboard and nodded toward Ishii, letting him know that he had heard and completed the task.
Ishii next took the fireplace poker, which he gave to the guard and ordered to heat in the crematorium furnace. The soldier ran off to fulfill the order and returned a couple minutes later, bringing with him a white-hot poker, which he handed to the general. Shiro Ishii approached Luna from the other side and pressed this poker against the shoulder of her whole arm. In just a split second, he made a deep burn there, right down to the bone, and put the poker away.
Remarkably, the girl did not react to pain or any stimuli at all. She didn't care about the hand that was splattered all over the room, nor the deepest burn on her other hand. Ishii examined the burn, but it also didn't change, not at all. Ishii sighed heavily.
- It's a total mess. Yoshimura! Cross out the second point. Arita, make the third.
Just like last time, the same officer with the clipboard crossed out another item. The third person present, Officer Arita, walked over to a device built into the wall and performed some manipulations, turning on a few levers and buttons, after which a soft monotonous noise began to echo in the room. Arita turned on a few more levers and waved his hand to Ishii, letting him know that he had done his part, realized the "third point". Now it was up to Shiro again.
Shiro Ishii snapped his fingers and commanded Luna, who was still in the "off" state, "On the floor!". The girl immediately jumped down from the chair and lay on the floor, still ignoring the absence of one arm and the burn on the other. Ishii commanded - "Stand up! Greet the commander!". The girl immediately jumped up and saluted with her remaining right hand.
- Hello, Comrade General Shiro Ishii!
The general grinned. He snapped his fingers again and commanded "on the floor" again, but this time nothing happened. Then he repeated it and the girl threw herself on the floor again. Shiro Ishii had developed a radio-controlled human! Nevertheless, he turned to the officers and assistants.
- This works, but experiment-731 fails. The first and second points do not work. I'm ordering the experiment to be closed. Yoshimura, Kitano, Arita, report to my office this afternoon. Kasahara, take charge of the object and prepare it for shipment to Tokyo. You're all free to go.
The audience quickly dispersed from the room, the assistants discussing among themselves what had happened and laughing at the girl, one of the officers took Luna with him and sent her to a "living container" equipped with some amenities and a supply of food. The higher officers gathered in the afternoon and wrote a report to Tokyo, which Kasahara put in his briefcase and soon left the research complex by train, taking the living container with him.
Kasahara took her and the report to South Korea, from where it was taken by sea to Tokyo and handed over to the military leadership. Prime Minister Kantaro did not appreciate the results and ordered the girl's liquidation, and the documents were classified at the Emperor's request. A girl named Luna/Runa was shot by the Kempeitai (military police) unit outside the city and buried in an unmarked grave in a remote cemetery, and "experiment-731" was buried in the dust of history for a long time. Japan soon lost World War II and capitulated, and Unit 731 was disbanded. Shiro Ishii surrendered, handed over his findings to the Americans, and together with his fellow soldiers escaped punishment.
So and would have ended this whole epic, if not for a certain unexpected incident ...
