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GOSHIMA, SHIRO (KIU) Statement of Goshima (14-15 July 1947) [Marginal Note: "Sugama. 25 Sep 47"] 27, doctor in Gifu-ken, graduate of KIU attached special medical college 1944, entering in 1941. In army October 1944, stayed 25 days (bad lungs), discharged, returned to KIU about 20 January 1945, changed his branch from surgery to autopsy was in anatomy section until 19 June. Goshima's senior professor in Surgery was Tomoda in clinic #2, his senior professor in anatomy was Hirako. About 15 May 1945, between 1300-1400, Goshima had to go to the servants' room and saw a Japanese soldier standing guard near the door of a side room off the hall. When Goshima returned to his lab, which he shared with RYU, either RYU or Makino was there and told Goshima "By permission of the army authorities, the operation on American PWs is going to take place." A little later Hirako called Goshima to his office and said, "If the Prisoner dies, you may take the brain out for your specimen." Goshima answered "Yes," and returned to his lab. Between 1600-1700 Goshima heard the doctors walking down the hall coming from the autopsy room, so he thought the operation was over, went to autopsy training room, which was empty except for a dead body on a dissecting table in the middle of the room. The body on the dissecting table was not Japanese, knew it must be the body of the American Prisoner. It*s head was to the right as Goshima entered from the adjoining students* training autopsy room. Goshima saw that an incision had been made in the chest and one on the abdomen. The chest incision was about 6 ” long and it seemed several ribs had been cut away, exposing the lung. The stomach incision was also open, exposing the organs. The stomach incision was from just below the sternum to about 3 ” b e low the navel. Goshima then returned to his lab to make preparations for removing the brain of the dead Prisoner. He gathered his operating knives and returned to the autopsy room where the dead boy was lying on the dissecting table. Goshima was still alone, but when he re-entered, Tanaka was at the table, working on the dead Prisoner's body, taking out specimens, was alone. Goshima had to make several trips to bring equipment, and by the time he had brought it all, Makino had joined Tanaka, and they were busy working and talking, and Goshima went back to his lab to prepare some Meuller*s solution. Ryu followed him, and he asked Ryu to help him in the autopsy room because he could not make the injection alone. Tanaka and Makino were still removing specimens from the stomach and chest cavities, seemed to be working together. Goshima asked Ryu to make preparations to inject the Meuller's Solution, so he made an incision in the neck, exposing the artery, then inserted the needle into the artery and injected the solution into the artery. Goshima held the container of solution during the injection. The artery was then tied. Makino and Tanaka then left. This was Goshima's first experience with Meuller's Solution. He had just read about it after Hirako told him he could take out the brain. Someone had told him that the brain would not become firm for some time after the injection of the solution, the longer the better. Because of this, Goshima decided to cut off the entire head and remove the brain 2 months later. Goshima -2- Goshima took his surgical scalpel in his right hand, and, holding the head with his left, cut the skin all around the neck from the front, about half way between the shoulders and the top of the neck. He then cut through the muscles down to the spine. He cut the spine between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae and removed the head. He picked it up with both his hands over the ears and laid it on a cloth on the table. He then placed it in a container of Hormorin Solution. Ryu did not help in removing the head; he left after injecting the Meuller Solution. Goshima didn’t notice anyone enter while he removed the head. He let the body on the dissecting table. Goshima let the container, with the head in it, at the entrance to the hall from the autopsy room and then returned to his room, went home. Sometime in the early part of June, before the Fukuoka bombing, he removed the brain from the head in the autopsy training room. He cut the skin down to the skull a little above the ears, around the head. Then, using a small saw he sawed through the skull and lifted it from the top of the head. He then removed the brain, with the nerves and arteries attached, without harming them. He placed the brain in a glass container of Meuller's Solution and took it to his lab. the head was well preserved. The part of the head remaining he put back in the same container, after wrapping it up, and let it in the autopsy room. Goshima doesn’t know what happened to the container. The brain is supposed to be at the Anatomy Section at KIU as a specimen. It was a very good brain specimen. Goshima believes that the brain was identified as a brain from an American with the date removed from the brain on the container. Goshima did not help Tanaka or Makino take any of their specimens, did not reach into incision with Makino and take the Prisoner’s heart in his hand, did not cut specimens. Makino did not explain the parts to him. Goshima never heard of any other operations on American Prisoners. Goshima left Fukuoka about 20 July. The reason Goshima got this brain was that it was a foreigner’s brain and there was no such specimen at the Anatomy Section, and Goshima thought he could find something different about the American brain, although Goshima was not a brain expert. They studied German medical texts, but all specimens were Japanese. Goshima kept the brain until he left in July, but he didn’t have cm opportunity to study it. He left the brain in his lab, planned to come back to study it, but never did. Goshima told Kita about the brain, showed him the containers with the brains of Japanese and the American. What Goshima may have done may be a crime now, but he did it for the advancement of his study and for medical science.
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