Kyushu University Vivisection Incident — Faculty of Medicine
九州大学生体解剖事件（九大医学部）
Site of the Kyushu Imperial University vivisection incident (May–June 1945), in which eight captured American B-29 crewmen from the 29th Bombardment Group were subjected to live experimental surgeries — including lung removal, seawater blood injection, and organ excision — at the university's anatomy department. All eight died. In 1948, thirty defendants faced a B/C-class war crimes tribunal in Yokohama; twenty-three were convicted. The Kyushu University Medical History Museum on the Maidashi campus now documents the atrocity as part of its medical ethics and peace education mission.
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History
The Kyushu University vivisection incident (九州大学生体解剖事件) is one of the most documented cases of wartime medical atrocities committed in Japan. On May 5, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress from the 29th Bombardment Group, based on Guam, was shot down during a bombing raid on Tachiarai Airfield near Fukuoka. Japanese fighter pilot Kinzo Kasuya rammed the bomber, destroying both aircraft. Of the eleven-man crew, most bailed out by parachute. Two were killed on the ground by civilians, and the aircraft commander, 1st Lt. Marvin S. Watkins, was separated from the others and sent to Tokyo for interrogation at the Kempei Tai headquarters. Watkins survived the war.
Eight captured B-29 airmen — survivors of Watkins's crew and, according to Japanese accounts, of a second bomber shot down the same day — were held by the Western Military District Command in Fukuoka. Between May 17 and June 2, 1945, they were taken to the anatomy department of Kyushu Imperial University's Faculty of Medicine (now Kyushu University) in Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, where they were subjected to experimental vivisection operations performed by university surgeons under military supervision.
The experiments were conducted across four separate surgical sessions. Procedures included: intravenous injection of diluted seawater to test whether it could substitute for saline solution; removal of an entire lung to observe survival time; excision of parts of the liver and stomach; clamping of the carotid artery to study the effects on brain function; and drilling holes into the skull to assess effects on the brain. All eight airmen died during or immediately after these procedures. Their identities have been subject to historical dispute, but confirmed victims include Teddy J. Ponczka (the first to be operated on), William R. Fredericks, and Dale E. Plambeck, among others.
After Japan's surrender, the incident was investigated by American occupation authorities. The Yokohama war crimes tribunal convened on March 11, 1948, with thirty defendants — military officers and Kyushu University medical faculty. Charges included vivisection, wrongful removal of body parts, and consumption of human organs. Twenty-three were found guilty. Five defendants — two Western Army officers and three university doctors — were sentenced to death; Professor Fukujiro Ishiyama, who had directed the operations, had hanged himself in custody in July 1946, before the trial. However, in 1950, General Douglas MacArthur commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment, and by the mid-1950s, all convicted individuals had been paroled amid the political dynamics of the Korean War.
For decades, the incident remained a taboo subject at Kyushu University. In 2015, the university broke its silence when the newly established Kyushu University Medical History Museum (九州大学医学歴史館) included a panel documenting the vivisection experiments as part of its permanent exhibition. Dr. Toshio Tono (東野利夫), who witnessed the operations as a medical student, spent his lifetime collecting evidence and advocating for acknowledgment. In May 2025, on the 80th anniversary of the first operation, the museum opened an exhibition devoted to Tono and his records, further cementing its commitment to historical transparency and medical ethics education.