Ex-navy officer admits to vivisection of war prisoners in Philippines

A former officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy medical corps in Osaka Prefecture has admitted to having carried out vivisection on about 30 prisoners of war, including women and children, in the Philippines during World War II. Akira Makino, 84, the former medical corps officer from Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, made the revelations, despite opposition from wartime friends.

After keeping it to himself for nearly 61 years, he said in a recent interview: "The souls of those who died would not be soothed if the story remained buried." Makino belonged to the medical corps of the navy's No. 33 patrol unit and was assigned to Zamboanga air base on Mindanao Island in August 1944. The experiments on live prisoners began in December that year, according to Makino. He was then 22.