The Most Haunted Park in Tokyo

Just a warning before we begin. When we talk about evil scientists, this is it. This episode includes descriptions of horrific acts of torture performed on humans and is intended for mature audiences only. Aaron dreamed of traveling to Japan. He loved the culture, the food, the movies, anime, all of it. The years passed and he went to school and got a good job, married, had a child, and even a divorce, and his dream was still there. It had been on the back burner for years, and finally, when his daughter turned seventeen, the time seemed right. He looked up flights, scouting for the best deals, and he did it. His dream was going to happen. He bought two tickets to Tokyo and found a decent apartment in Shindyuku City. The rental was close to a huge park and not far from the city center. Was everything they needed, and it seemed perfect for the two of them. It was a very long fly and it landed pretty late. By the time they got to the rental home, all they wanted to do was sleep. Aaron took the bed on the left side and his daughter took the one on the right. They were both asleep within minutes, but then at three point thirty in the morning, Aaron abruptly woke up to blood curdling screams. At first, it sounded like one man and he seemed to be screaming in pain. Aaron ran to the window to try and see where the screams were coming from. The screams were coming from the park, but he didn't see anyone there. He turned back around to look at his daughter. She was fast asleep. The screaming didn't wake her. Whatever that was seemed to be over, so he got back in bed, but he heard it again, only it sounded like more than one person. This time, The screams and cries grew louder, and he ran to the window again, thinking something was happening. There was no one there. This time he didn't fall back asleep. Aaron was sure the screaming was coming from the park, so he decided to look it up online, and that's when he learned about the horrifying truth about Toyama Park. And I have it right here for you today. My name is Edwin and here it's a horror story to Yama Park is located in the heart of Tokyo. Despite being in the middle of a very busy city. The twenty six acre park overflows with greenery. A walking path runs through the park and you can follow it to see it all the different birds, trees and bushes, the families walking together in people walking their pets. When the sun is up, the sunlight filters through the trees, and there's even a Japanese word for that, komorevi. There's also a set of stairs surrounded by beautiful cherry trees. You stay lead up to Mount Hakone, the highest summit in Shinyuku. It's a sight to see during the day, but when the sun sets, it's a different story. Toyama Park has a dark past, and that dark pass is the sores of the screams at Erin and so many others here during the night. Before it became a park, there was a medical school located in Toyama. This building housed a facility that belonged to Japan's infamous Unit seven thirty one. Unit seven thirty one was part of the Japanese Imperial Army. They became famous for the experiments they carried out in the prisoners before and during World War II. The building they worked out of isn't there anymore, but the stories Linger Unit seven thirty one was also known as a Manchu Detachment seven to three to one, the Camel Detachment, and the Ishi Unit. It operated in secret and its main objective was biological and chemical warfare research and development. They were responsible for some of the worst war crimes committed during World War II. Conducting tests and experiments on people was a normal thing for them. These tests included injecting their victims with disease, dehydrating their victims just to see what happened, and amputations no one was safe. The victims included kidnapped men, women, pregnant women, babies, and children. Japan invaded an area of China called Manchuria in nineteen thirty one, and this is where the unit was built. The invasion and occupation were brutal. The Japanese Army believed the Manchuria was the best place to set up the units because it gave them access to an infinite amount of test subjects. They viewed the Chinese as no cost assets and even referred to them as logs to dehumanize them. The facilities of Unit seven thirty one doubled as a prison. They were able to detain up to six hundred prisoners to conduct their research on, but over the years thousands were objected to human experimentation. The prisoners were sitting ducks, trapped and waiting for their torture as death. A man watched night after night as his cell mates were taken. They never came back. Had been months since he had been ripped away from his family by the Japanese Army. He realized a while ago that he would never see them again. He would not leave this place alive. He stared in utter fear as the others were taken one by one. Some of them fought, others went willingly. There was no point in fighting. Only death waited for him. After a while, he was the last one left. He knew they would come for him too, and when they did, he didn't resist. He didn't struggle. Was pointless. He knew it was over. The guards led him to a small room. It was dark, with only one light illuminating the table in the middle. There was a male stand next to the table, and on the tray there were bloody tools. The sheet over the table was bloody as well. The room smelled like death. The guards didn't even have to force him on the table of death. He knew it was his place. He knew it was over. He climbed up and laid down, his back flat on the table. The guards tied him down, starting with his arms and then his legs. He didn't know what they were going to do, but he was ready for it to be over. The guards left and two men in white coats walked in. The man watched as the pair walked over to the mayo stand. One of them grabbed the scalpel. Now the man felt scared. He started to scream. He thought he didn't care, He thought it could not get any worse. But he was wrong. He screamed and tried to pull at his restraints, but he was too weak. The doctor with the scalpel walked over him and said something the man didn't understand. Then he put the scalpel on the man's chest and pushed and dragged the scalpel down from the man's chest to his stomach. The man screamed and twisted in agony. The two men didn't seem bothered. They continued to use a scalpel until the man was no longer screaming. After about an hour or so, the man's leg and arm were on the tray. The two men washed their hands and called a pair of nurses get rid of it. The nurses nodded. They moved the dead man onto a gurney and rolled them away. Prisoners of Unit seven thirty one were subjected to vivisections. These are experimental surgeries with no medical purposes. Prisoners had their body parts amputated just so the doctors of seven thirty one could study the blood loss. Sometimes limbs were reattached to the opposite side of a prisoner's body for no reason. Some prisoners had their stomachs removed and their esophagus attached to their intestines, just to see what would happen. Prisoners were infected with viruses and bacteria and then opened up to see how their organs were affected. Unit seven thirty one gave prisoners to babonic plague, cholera, smallpox, gonnor rhea, syphilis, and other diseases. They had different ways of doing this. Sometimes they used plague fleas or infected clothing. They went as far as using plague bombs. Guards would tie them to stakes and then use them as targets for the bombs. The prisoners in Manchuria were not the only ones subjected to these infectious bombs. These were dropped in other parts of China and Japan too. The victims held captive by seven thirty one were also used to test different weapons like grenades, bayonets, knives, and flamethrowers. Hi Sato Yoshimura, an army engineer with Unit seven thirty one, loved when he got to take the prisoners outside and test weapons on them. Another favorite experiment of his was to take victims outside and dip different parts of their bodies into freezing water. He would leave them there until the limb was completely frozen. He would even strike the limbs with the short stick so he could make sure that it was frozen over, and then he would chip away the ice and do more testing, like exposing the limb to fire. He was so bad other members of seven thirty one called him a cold blooded animal and a scientific devil. He had no remorse, but he saw too. Yoshimuda wasn't the only evil scientists in seven thirty one. The tests prisoners were subjected to were truly horrible. They were placed into low pressure chambers until their eyes popped out of their sockets. They were dehydrated until they became mummies. They were placed inside centrifuge and spun to death. They were even burned alive. They were injected with sea water and horse blood. This was all done while the prisoners were still alive. When the prisoners died from these horrifying experiments, that were sent to one place that was Unit thirty one's Tokyo site, Toyama Park. The rest of the episode continues right after this stay with me. The deceased prisoners were analyzed then dumped into a mass grave where Toyama Park sits today. Before they were dumped into mass graves, though their bodies were heavily mutilated, This was done to try and hide the horrible things that were done to them while they were alive. And this would have remained a secret too if it weren't for one nurse, and her name was Toyo Ishi. She was a nurse during World War two and she was stationed at the Tokyo facility. In two thousand and six, when she was eighty eight years old, she broke her silence. The secret had eaten her up for decades. She came forward and said that she and the other other nurses were ordered to bury bodies. She didn't know about human experiments. She and the other nurses collected the remains for the morgues at the facility. These bodies were mutilated and they also buried bones, sometimes even body parts alone. She was assigned to oral surgery when Japan sur rendered in nineteen forty four, and she and the others were ordered to bring the bodies to large holes. She did as she was ordered because she was told, we will be in trouble if American soldiers asked us about the specimens. Her disclosure led to a meeting with Japan's health minister. They vowed to investigate her claims of a mass grave, but it didn't happen right away. Residents that lived in the area had to be moved. The building that was there was demolished, cleaned, and closed. The digging began, They weren't sure what they would find. It really would not have been surprising to find the mass grave. There was one found in nineteen eighty nine, very close to where the dig was taking place. There were thirty five skulls found and they all belonged to non Japanese Asian people. There were signs that the remains were used for medical education and were far from war zones, but the Japanese government denied a connection to Unit seven thirty one. When digging at Toyama Park was done, dozens of remains were found. The government denied a connection to the infamous unit again, but Toyoishi stood by her testimony and looking into it, it's not that hard to believe her. When World War II was coming to an end, all prisoners held captive by seven thirty one were killed. They also attempted to burn any documentation that could be evidence. All incriminating material was destroyed. Over six hundred Chinese and Manurion laborers were killed because they were witnesses. Every member of seven thirty one was ordered to take this secret to their grave. Each member was handed potassium cyanide vials a talk that would kill them in case they were captured. Skeleton crews blew up seven thirty one's compound to try and hide more evidence. There were three thousand, six hundred and seven members in the Sinister Unit. This information was not released until twenty eighteen, when the National Archives of Japan disclosed an almost complete list. Any members that remained were allowed to go free when the US began to occupy Japan. On May sixth, nineteen forty seven, Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, ordered the following Additional data statements can be obtained by informing the Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and it will not be employed as war crimes evidence. Basically, all the information that Units seven thirty one got from their horrible experiments would remain a part of US intelligence information and no one would be charged with war crimes. They were granted immunity. The Soviet Union did pursue a case against twelve of the top scientists and military leaders of seven thirty one, but they did it in silence. The horrible experiments conducted by seven thirty one remained a secret. The building in Toyama was destroyed, evidence was hidden, but the truth about such horrible acts found a way to be heard, and that was through the spirits of the victims that did not stay quiet. Those who find themselves at Toyama Park in the late hours of the night have reported hearing agonizing screams. They are louder as you climb the stairs to hakone Yama, and if you're walking on the path that runs through the park. After the sunsets, you might hear the sound of a man sobbing. You might also encounter rahito dama. These are orange, red, or blue white orbs of light that float close to the ground. You might know them by a different name, will of the wisp. It's a flamelike phosphorescence or a light caused by gases from decaying plants and marshy areas. The floating lights are caused when certain chemicals mix with any organic decay that includes human bodies. Even though there was scientific explanation behind it, they are still believed to be a person's soul separating from their body. One group of friends decided to go to the park late at night after a hard day of studying. As they walked along the path, joking and laughing, they heard something. It sounded like ethereal music, floating with a breeze. Curious and confused, the friends decided to investigate. They try to find out where it was coming from. Just as they were ready to give up, they saw a shadowy figure playing a woodwind instrument and it vanished before their eyes and on top of the cry, the screaming and the ghostly music. There's more. If you take a picture at the park at night, take a close look at it, because there's a high chance or something unwanted in the picture. It could be one of the many shadows visitors see disappearing into the trees. Some have reported the spirits of a lady in white roaming the path too. Those who have visited the lake in Toyama Park have felt a sensation of dread, like they're being watched. There are also stories of a samurai that haunts the park. According to legend, the samurai took his own life inside of it, and now his spirit wanders the area because he has nowhere to rest. People have heard his footsteps behind them, only to turn around and see no one there. The dark past of Toyama Park and Japan as a whole, is still being uncovered. After World War II was over, the Office of Special Investigations made a list of those who collaborated with the Axis powers Italy, Germany and Japan. The list contained over sixty thousand names that were banned from entering the US, but this list only included one thousand Japanese people. A lot of work went into hiding the atrocities committed by Unit seven thirty one. There was no mention of any of it in textbooks for years after World War Two. In nineteen eighty three, the Japanese Ministry of Education made a Japanese historian removed mention of experiments conducted on Chinese prisoners from his textbook, and fourteen years later, the Supreme Court of Japan finally ruled by removing the history of Unit seven thirty one was illegal. It wasn't until two thousand and two that a Tokyo District court ruled for the first time ever that Japan had actually engaged in biological warfare. This was the first time a judge acknowledged these horrible things were done to Chinese civilians during World War II, but victims were still denied any reparations. When the COVID nineteen pandemic began, scientists demanded that data collected by seven thirty one be released. They believed that it would help with pandemic control. The request was denied by both the US and Japan. Chinese families of relatives believed to have been victims of the experiments of Unit seven thirty one have requested DNA testing on the bones, Japan has refused. Chinese, Koreans, Soviets, Americans, Australians, and even Filipinos suffered at the hands of Unit seven thirty one. It wasn't until twenty eighteen, just recently, that some of the names of members of seven thirty one were revealed. Japan has yet to apologize for the atrocities committed by the unit. Research on Unit seven thirty one is still going on and there's still much left to be uncovered. But trying to hide the dark past can only last for so long. We have those among the living that are still out there demanding answer, but demands have also come from those who have passed. For as much as officials try to keep it hidden, the spirits of those who suffer still scream, still demand justice, reminding us as we walk by to Yama Park in those dark nights of the unfairness, evil and pain they live through, never leaving no matter how much others try and banish them from our memories. This episode of Horror Story was written by Chrisina Lmaghi with research by madel Inguera. An additional production by me Edwin Komarubias to support the show. Try out Scary Plus over on scaryplus dot com, and if you want to get in touch, you can find us over on TikTok and Instagram at scary dot Fm. You can also find me on there with the username Edwinco. That's E d w I n c o V. Thank you very much for listening, Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.