Statements Concerning Ishiyama

Statement of Mori (3 and _____ Sept 1947) About 1300 on 17 May Mori was in his room when Hirao came in, said that Ishiyama wanted him to assist on a lung operation on a Prisoner, that PM in the Anatomy Section Autopsy room.

Hirao further stated that the army had ordered Ishiyama to perform this opera­tion.

Ishiyama was a temporary civilian official in the army as a medical supervisor, and because the operation was a difficult one he may have been asked to perform this operation.

After the prisoners arrived and preparations made for the operation, the pri­soners were placed on stretchers and carried down the hall into a small dressing room. Ishiyama arrived in the meantime, saluted the army officer, ordered Mori to inject 0.3 ccs of Narcopon Scopolamin into each Prisoner. Mori learned that the staff officer was Sato.

Mori overheard Komori tell Ishiyama that he had given the Prisoners a narcotic before bringing them to the University.

After about a half an hour had passed, Ishiyama asked Mori to see if the injec­tions had taken effect enough for the Prisoners to be operated on. Mori returned (from dressing room to dissection room), after 20 minutes, insufficient effect, and Ishiyama ordered another injection of 0.3 ccs of Narcopon Scopolamin to the Prisoner with the blood stain on his uniform and tc bring him in.

On the orders of Ishiyama, Mori applied an ether mask to the Prisoner about 5 minutes before the operation begem.

Ishiyama stood on the Prisoner's right, Torisu on his left. Miki, on the Pri­soners right, handed instruments placed on a table perpendicular to the operat­ing table. Komori and Hirao were across from Ishiyama, on the Prisoner's left. Mori stood at Hirao's left.

Ishiyama made an incision, retracted the wound, was removing a section of, Mori believes, the 5th rib, the 3rd and 4th already removed, when Mori returned from scrubbing. The ribs were then retracted, exposing the right lung. Ishiyama lifted the right lung, made a ligature of the pulmonary veins and pulmonary artery, removed the right lung by cutting the bronchus and the pulmonary veins and pulmonary artery. The bronchus was then sutured. There were no wounds in the lung; it was not diseased in any way.

Ishiyama handed the lung to Miki, who placed it on the instrument table.

Ishiyama was interested in lung surgery, no doubt wanted to experiment in the total resection of a lung. A total resection had been reported at medical conferences by professors from other Universities, and, because it is done where a condition of cancer of the lung exists, these patients are rare and hard to find and this gave him an opportunity to experiment without waiting for the necessary patient. Mori believes the Prisoner was still alive when the incision was sutured, is not sure. Ishiyama said to Sato, "I have now learned how a total lung resection can be done."

Statement of Mori (3 and___ Sept 1947) Cont'd...... After the 1st operation was finished, Ishiyama ordered Mori to check the 2nd patient for the effects of the anaesthetic and to give another injection of 0.3 ccs of Narcopon Scopolamin.

Ishiyama , Mori, Torisu, Komori, Hirao and Seriba participated in this operation. Miki handled the instruments, Tsutsui supervised the nurses, and Suyama observed.

The doctors were arranged as before. Hirao was in a position to use retractors and to swab the blood, Komori in position to retract, swab, do ligatures and use the Kocher, Torisu to do ligatures, retract, swab, and use the Kocher, Ishiyama to do the surgery.

On the day of the 2nd series of operations, Hirao came to Mori's room, told him that Ishiyama had ordered that they again assist in operations on Prisoners that day, that he would like to go to him and ask him not to go ahead with the operations; Mori agreed. Hirao said this was the way Torisu felt. Hirao got Torisu and Mori saw them go in Ishiyama's office, come out a few minutes later, whereupon Hirao told Mori that Ishiyama told them that they should not worry, that "I am doing the operations. You just follow my orders." They were trained to obey orders of the superior professor, Mori thought about appealing to Dean Ohno of the medical college, but he was head in name only, of no higher position than Ishiyama. Too, since the operations had been ordered by the army, he had no control.

Mori doesn't believe that Ishiyama could have approved this arrangement him­self; it would be formal custom to talk to the proper authorities of the University (Hyakutake). In September 1945, when Mori came back to attend a medical conference, Ishiyama told him for the first time to keep the operations secret.

2nd series - 22 May, about 1400. Ishiyama ordered Hirao and Mori to scrub, told Mori to prepare for an abdominal operation. Hiro and Mori did so, then told Ishiyama the patient was ready. Ishiyama ordered Mori to start the opera­tion with Hirao and to do a total gastric resection. Either Suyama, Miki or Manabe was passing the instruments.

Hirao and Mori began the operation, then Komori took over. One of the doctors then came alongside Mori and Mori asked if the other operation was over. He said "Not yet". At that time Ishiyama came over, said he would massage the heart, which is done with the hand to stimulate the heart action when the patient becomes. The heart massage is practically never used and is only as a last resort to restore action to the heart. Mori did not believe this action was applied to save the life of the Patient since he knew he was going to die anyway.

Ishiyama made a semi-circular incision 9" long in the left breast, Mori retracted the ribs from the side and Hirao from his side. The heart sac was exposed, and Ishiyama made an incision in the heart sac, exposing the heart, then reached in with his hand and massaged the heart for 1-2 minutes. He then made an inci­sion in the heart about 1 1/2 ". Before this, he took the heart in his left hand and showed Mori how to do an aortenklemme, which is done Jay pressing the heart so that the aorta is pressed shut, temporarily stopping the flow of blood into the heart so as to cause minimum bleeding when the incision is made.

Statement of Mori (3 and ____ Sept 1947) Cont'd. The incision was immediately sutured. Ishiyama then said, "See, it is not very difficult to suture an in­cision in the heart." He then turned to.Hirao and Mori and said, "Now you try it, and check on the width of the sutures.", then left to the other opera­tion. The Prisoner was still alive. Mori took the heart, used the aortenklenme method, made an incision alongside Ishiyama's, sutured it, using a smaller stitch, since he understood Ishiyama meant to compare the effects of muscular contraction on the wide and the small sutures while the patient was alive and then after death.

The Prisoner died before Mori finished suturing the incision on the heart. Mori completed the heart sutures, then sutured the chest and abdomen incision. Mori knew the patient would die because of this experiment. Hirao made the ligatures while Mori made the sutures in separate stitches. Mori then told Ishiyama he was finished, watched the other operation.

The 2nd operation was a liver operation, with Ishiyama, Komori and Torisu doing the operating. Ishiyama was about to remove the liver; there was much bleeding including the liver. It seemed that Ishiyama was removing the right lobe of the liver, and ligatures had been made on the arteries and veins to check the bleeding. The liver was almost removed when the patient died, Mori left and went to his office.

3rd series - 26 May, at 1300 Hirao told Moir there would be another operation in the autopsy room that day, that Ishiyama had requested that he assist.

The patient lay on his stomach. He had been given either before turned on his stomach, and novocain was injected at the base of the skull by Ishiyama. Ishiyama was the first surgeon, Komori first assistant, Torisu was 2nd assis­tant, Hirao 3rd assistant, Mori 4th assistant. Ishiyama made a semi-circular incision about 3" long near the base of the skull and forceps were applied to the blood vessels to stop the bleeding. Hirao, Torisu and Mori retracted the incision. The periost was then cut and scraped off with a laspatorium. Komori drilled 4 holes in the skull, 1 1/2 " apart, and Ishiyama sawed through the skull with a gigli thread, lifted out a skull section about 1 1/2 " square, exposing the meningea (membrane over the brain) Ishiyama made a cross incision in the meningea, exposing the brain, and, using a spatel, separated the brain from the meningea. While Mori was manipulating with the spatel, the blood suddenly gushed out of the opening in the skull. They tried to stop the bleeding by applying gauze to the opening.

The Prisoner's condition was critical; the blood color became black; he died a few minutes later. Ishiyama tried to stop the flow of blood with gauze, was unsuccessful, said that if he had a Bovie unit, an electro coagulator made in America he could stop the bleeding.

Hirako had been watching the operation from soon after it started, and either just before or after the blood started flowing Ishiyama asked him how to reach the substantial nigra which is located at the base of the brain. Hirako replied it was difficult to reach it in such a manner, went out and got a brain speci­men, showed him the location and the difficulty. Ishiyama merely said, "Is that so.", continued to try and stop the blood flow.

Statement of Mori (3 and _ Sept 1947) Cont'd. ....... Ishiyama put the pieces of skull back in and sutured the incision of the dead Prisoner. It appeared that Ishiyama was trying to find the best method of reaching the substantia nigra, was interested in epilepsy and interested to get to the nigra so as to treat his epilepsy patients.

After the 3rd day of operations, while Mori was still in the autopsy room, Ishiyama told him "There will be a party tonight at the Ippotei, the military restaurant, after we are finished here." Mori cleaned up, went to the restaurant with Hirao and Torisu about 1730. Sato and Komori were there; Ishiyama came about an hour later.

Each was introduced by Ishiyama to Sato, who said, "Thank you for your trouble." Mori left at 2000. Mori thought Sato was representing the military, thanking them for fulfilling their request. It would need the permission of the CG (Yokoyama) to have the Prisoners die.

The next AM, 26 May, Mori went to Ishiyama to pay his respects before leaving for Kagoshima, leaving 28 May, returning to the University about 3 weeks later after the Fukuoka bombing to buy surgical instruments.

Mori now recalls thaton the day of the 1st operation Ishiyama was annoyed at the delay in the anesthesia of the 1st patient while he was still in the dressing room, so Komori brought along ether and after Mori gave the 2nd in­jection of narcopon scopolamin he administered ether to this patient, still had the mask on which he was carried into the autopsy room.

Statement of Torisu (29 Aug - 5 Sept 1947) Torisu was experimenting on the use of sea water as a possible blood substitute with Senba, Ishiyama supervising, and to whom Torisu made written reports. Ishiyama was conducting experiments and research on epilepsy, stomach cancer, gall stones, and TB.

Torisu never experimented on live humans during his own research, but Ishiyama, Mori, Komori, Morimoto, Senba, Hirao and Torisu used live humans in their experiments. These were experimental operations— unnecessary operations performed on healthy humans. All these were healthy except one PW who was wounded, but his operation was unnecessary. A healthy human is one with no diseases or injuries. These humans were plane crash survivors, or PWs, who were held at WAH. Torisu heard that they were B-29 survivors.

1st series - about 20 May, 1300, Ishiyama ordered Torisu to assist in performing operations on PWs that PM at the autopsy room, told him that the operation was requested by Japanese array authorities, that it would be a lung operation, that he had received permission from Hirako to perform the operation in his autopsy room. Torisu said he would be there. Torisu's intentions were to operate on the PWs in the ordinary manner. Ishiyama wanted the PWs operated on in the autopsy room because he didn't want to publicize the fact that he was experimenting on healthy human beings.

Present in the autopsy room: Ishiyama, Mori, Hirao, Senba, Tsutsui, Komori, Sato, and either Miki or Manabe.

Statement of Torisu (29 Aug - 5 Sept 1947) Cont'd ........ Ishiyama made a 10 centimeters horizontal incision about the right breast. Torisu noticed a flesh wound of about 1-2 centimeters in diameter between the 2nd and 3rd ribs. Ishi­yama then cut off about 10 centimeters of either the 3rd or 4th rib, made an incision on the pleural cavity, and he and Komori then applied hemostats to the pulmonary artery and vein, and Ishiyama then cut the bronchial tubes, re­moved the entire right lung.

Torisu stood to the left of Komori and opposite Ishiyama. When the right lung was removed there was profuse bleeding, and the PW died 10 minutes after the lung was removed.

Ishiyama first told them the operation was to be performed so that a bullet could be removed from the PW's chest, but this was not the objective. Torisu saw no bullet in the lung, which was removed without necessity. Just before Ishiyama resected the lung, he said he would remove it. Torisu believes the object of the operation was the trying of new methods of removing a lung from a human by Ishiyama.

When the hemostats were applied to the blood vesels, Ishiyama failed to tie the blood vessels to stop the bleeding and thus a great deal of blood was lost, resulting in death. However, Torisu states that Ishiyama used the same caution he would have at first surgery.

Ishiyama made the incision, removed the 3rd or 4th rib, the entire right lung, and sutured the chest incision. Komori was the first assistant, assisted Ishiyama in applying the hemostats to the blood vessels, in retracting the incision, and helped remove the lung, placing it in a container on a nearby stand. Hirao and Torisu held retractors, occasionally wiped blood.

After this operation, Komori then asked Ishiyama to operate on a 2nd Prisoner, who was brought in by 2-3 Japanese soldiers on a stretcher, placed-; on a dissect­ing table at the extreme right corner of the autopsy room. Ishiyama, Komori, Hirao, Torisu and Tsutsui scrubbed.

Ishiyama said he would resect the upper lobe of the right lung, then made an incision of 10 centimeters along the 3rd and 4th ribs, horizontally. Ishiyama removed the 3rd rib, cut into the pleural cavity, exposed the right lung, re­moved the upper lobe. Hirao and Torisu applied a retractor and held the inci­sion open, then began wiping blood.  After removing the lobe, Ishiyama sewed the incision made on the middle lobe, did not replace the ribe, but continued to sew the incision on the abdominal wall'; A few minutes after the incision had been sewed the PW died.

Torisu's opinion is that Ishiyama performed the lung operation to show Komori the art of operating on a lung, that it was of no value to the advancement of medical science. Still present in the room when Torisu left: Ishiyama, Hirao, Komori, Senba, Tsutsui, Hirako, Tanaka, Sato, Sha, either Miki or Manabe, and 2-3 other doctors.

After the operations Ishiyama told Sato that although the Prisoners had died the operations were not very difficult.

Statement of Torisu (29 Aug - 5 Sept 1947) Cont'd...... 2nd series - a few days after the 1st series, Ishiyama ordered Torisu to help perform operations on more PWs. Hirao and Torisu told Ishiyama that such major operations could not be properly performed in the autopsy room, could not be completed without hospitalization and previous treatment, and Torisu asked him to persuade the army not to bring any more PWs to KIU. Ishiyama became rather angry, stated he would do as he pleased, that there was no choice for Hirao and Torisu except to act under his direction, that Komori had telephoned him and said that the PWs were already enroute to the University.

Torisu went to the autopsy room, saw 2 PWs lying on 2 dissecting tables ar­ranged as at the first operation. Mori had been operating on one PW, with Hirao as his assistant. Komori, Ishiyama, Seriba, Hirako and perhaps either Suyama or Miki were watching this operation. Torisu later heard it was a stomach and heart operation.

2nd PW - liver operation - Komori administered an injection, making the Pri­soner unconscious. Ishiyama then applied napercain as a local on the abdominal wall, then made a vertical incision from the lower part of the ribs to the umbilicus, then stated he would make a resection of the left lobe of the liver, exposed the liver, which Torisu noticed had a little swelling, but couldn't understand why a resection was necessary. Torisu had witnessed Ishiyama per­form such a resection where cancer was present. When Ishiyama was cutting the left lobe of the liver, a large quantity of bleeding suddenly occurred because Ishiyama had cut the portal vein in the liver.

After the prisoner died, Torisu then left and returned to his office, leaving Hirao, Ishiyama, Mori, Senba, Tsutsui, Miki and Suyama or Manabe in the autopsy room.

The same evening, Ishiyama asked him to go to the Kaikosha Officers' Club be­cause Sato and Komori had invited them for an evening meal. Hirao, Mori, Ishiyama, and Torisu went to the Kaikosha mess hall.

2-3 days later, Ishiyama ordered Torisu to assist again, told him that he had a meeting to discuss a class schedule at the University and could not attend.

Hirao told Torisu that one: PW was given a brain operation, that Ishiyama, Mori, Senba and Hirao attended, that the PW died.

In October 1945 Ishiyama asked Torisu to call on Sato, ask him the situation as to the PWs operated on at KIU, since the Allied Forces were now in Japan. In the latter part of October 1945 Hirao reported to Ishiyama that the Nishi Nihon Newspaper had published an article regarding the operations performed on PWs at KIU, and Ishiyama asked Torisu to report this to Sato, but he was not there, so Torisu told the story to Yakumaru who told him that the settlement of the affair is in charge of Sato and he would take care of it. In February 1946 Sato called on Ishiyama, who was not in his office, asked Torisu to tell him that if the Allied Forces discovered the operations to state that Komori had operated on the PWs without authorization, and Torisu told Ishiyama, who said "That is no good." Ishiyama stated he would talk to Sato at WAH. After the surrender Ishiyama requested them to keep the experimental operations secret.