Masaji Kitano

was a Japanese doctor, medical physician, microbiologist and a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army.

He was the second commander of Unit 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel.

Biography Masaji Kitano was born on 14 July 1894 in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.

He graduated in medicine from the School of Medicine, Tokyo Imperial University on 26 November 1920 and the following year was commissioned as a lieutenant as an army surgeon. In 1959, he became head of the plant in Tokyo and chief director of the company. He was the chief funeral commissioner of Shiro Ishii. Kitano died in Tokyo in 1986 at the age of 91.

In conducting his studies, Kitano extensively used human subjects for his experiments. A number of his publications in Japanese scientific journals for twenty years were based from these experiments. Readers of his works as well as students at Mukden Military Medical College became aware of his use of code names. Whenever he used the term "monkeys" instead of a specific species of primates, he was referring to humans from other nationalities.

During his time as a microbiologist, he was stationed in different biological warfare facilities under Japanese territory. The last recorded facility where he stationed was in Shanghai.