The 731 Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

government compound north of the city.

    Tonight, she was exhausted as she absentmindedly watched the farmland sweep by. The long days at the genetics facility wore away at her frail 105pound frame. And at sixty-four, her body was starting to show its age with an assortment of ailments creeping into her life. Arthritis and hypertension were the latest. But it was the tremor in her hands that reminded her of the Parkinson's disease that was continually and progressively taking its toll. Thesubstantia nigra, the dopamine cells in her brain, were dying. Without them the messages from the brain telling her body how and when to move were delayed. Parkinson's wouldn't kill her, but at some point she would become debilitated. Moon knew that time worked against her. The rigors of aging and the disease would soon make it too hard to maintain her schedule, her stamina, and her drive.

    But she was so close to the final climactic act in the drama of her life's work. Soon there would be no more awakening in the middle of the night bathed

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    in a sweat of fear and doubt. No more wondering if such a small, frail woman in an obscure, closed society could reach out and strike down so many of her hated enemy.

    Again she pulled the photograph from the pocket of her coat. As she gazed at her mother and father, she trembled with excitement at the thought of what she was about to do. And when her task would finally be over—when she had accomplished her mission to punish those who brought pain and suffering to her parents, her friends, her people—she planned to retire in her adopted homeland with all the benefits and privileges of a native-born North Korean high official. Protected from the retaliation that was sure to come, and secure from the ruthless imperialist aggressors, she would be well taken care of in her final years.

    Moon's parents had been studying medicine at Kyoto Imperial University during the Sino-Japanese War when they were recruited by the head of the secret Japanese biological warfare center named by Emperor Hirohito as Unit 731.

    Her parents were honorable and noble people who dedicated their lives to defending Japan, but after the war they became outraged as they watched their country get in bed with the Americans. Unlike the Japanese government, which seemed to ignore the catastrophic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the generations that would suffer later, her parents could not forgive America and its allies, nor could they excuse Japanese leaders from such a betrayal. Before many of their colleagues were brought to trial by an Allied war crimes tribunal, Moons mother and father escaped to Korea, renouncing their Japanese heritage, even discarding their Japanese surname of Nakamura, and taking on the Korean name of Chung. They were determined to carry on what Unit 731
    had started. Shortly after their arrival in Pyongyang, Moon was born.

    At age six, during the last days of the Korean War, Moon witnessed the rape and murder of her mother by the imperialist aggressors. Time had not dimmed that vivid memory, nor did she want it to. That memory was what fed her, what drove her, what gave her purpose. Moon squeezed her eyes shut to ward off the tears as the hatred for the Americans bloomed on her face. She focused on the photograph again—this time studying the face of her beloved father—a brilliant man, loyal husband, loving father. She bit hard on the inside of her cheek to relocate the pain in her heart and squelch the urge to sob aloud.So young then. So vibrant. This was the photograph she preferred to carry with her—when her parents were young, with bright eyes and promise in their smiles.

    Moon's father was the one who made her understand the importance of her parents' work and why it was done in secret. Her father had once said, "After all, if germ warfare was so terrible that it had to be banned by the Geneva Protocol, then it had to be a very good weapon. And in war, you must win." It had not