Khabarovsk, Russia - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Pedestrians
2. Flags of Russia, Khabarovsk Krai
3. Various of facade of building where Khabarovsk Trial was held in 1949
4. Photos of Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Nataliya Malinovskaya, daughter, Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky:
"It was December and (the trial) was broadcast through a speaker on the street outside. People were standing and listening. They listened as horrors that were happening there were uncovered."
6. Nataliya Malinovskaya reading
7. Photo of Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky
8. Nataliya Malinovskaya sitting for interview
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Nataliya Malinovskaya, daughter, Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky:
"Many who fought under my father's command, including my mother, told me that in Europe the enemy pursued a pragmatic goal and carried it out with German pedantry. But what they saw here was something entirely different -- something far worse. That was the impression they had of Unit 731's actions."
10. Photos of Khabarovsk Trial
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Nataliya Malinovskaya, daughter, Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky:
"It's devastating that the Khabarovsk rial did not hand down a single death sentence. All of them were released in 1956 -- and went on to live out their lives in peace."
12. Traffic

A public trial in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk in 1949 for 12 members of Unit 731 exposed the notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit's wartime crimes against humanity during World War II long denied by Japan.

During World War II, the Japanese invading forces established a biological warfare network across multiple Asian countries, with Unit 731 located in Harbin of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, serving as a top-secret base for biological weapons and human experiments.

At least 3,000 people from China, the Soviet Union and other countries and regions were used in human experiments conducted by Unit 731 and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.

Nataliya Malinovskaya, daughter of Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, recalled what her father's comrades told her about the first public tribunal exposing Unit 731's biological warfare program.

"It was December and (the trial) was broadcast through a speaker on the street outside. People were standing and listening. They listened as horrors that were happening there were uncovered," she said.

Marshal Malinovsky's forces crushed the Kwantung Army in just 11 days. These were the same units that had liberated Nazi concentration camps in Europe only months earlier. What they discovered in the area where Unit 731 operated, many described as evil on an entirely new level.

"Many who fought under my father's command, including my mother, told me that in Europe the enemy pursued a pragmatic goal and carried it out with German pedantry. But what they saw here was something entirely different -- something far worse. That was the impression they had of Unit 731's actions." said Nataliya Malinovskaya.

From Dec 25 to 30, 1949, 12 Japanese officers from Unit 731 were prosecuted for conducting bacteriological warfare. During the Khabarovsk Trial, they detailed the horrors inflicted on Chinese prisoners -- live dissections, amputations, exposure to extreme cold, and experiments with biological and chemical agents. Recordings of the trial, lasting 22 hours, five minutes and 57 seconds, contain contents concerning the transformation and organization of Unit 731, as well as the live human experiments, field toxicity tests, preparation and implementation of germ warfare by the unit.

One defendant admitted they did not see the prisoners as human beings, but as "lab rats" or "logs".

In the end, all 12 defendants were convicted of war crimes such as manufacturing and using biological weapons. However, as the Soviet Union had abolished the death penalty at the time, they were eventually sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 25 years.

"It's devastating that the Khabarovsk trial did not hand down a single death sentence. All of them were released in 1956 and went on to live out their lives in peace," said Nataliya Malinovskaya.

Russia's archival work -- and personal accounts like those preserved by the Malinovsky family -- continue to shed light on the wartime crimes of Unit 731. Nataliya hopes that keeping these memories alive will help ensure such horrors are never repeated.