Ep 355: The Fog of War and Humanity with Richard Acritelli and guest Jenny Chan P1 on hmTv

Ep. 355: The Fog of War and Humanity

Host: Richard Acritelli
Guest: Jenny Chan
hmTv / Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center

In this gripping first installment of a two-part conversation, host Richard Acritelli welcomes researcher and nonprofit founder Jenny Chan for a chilling dive into one of World War II’s least-taught chapters — Japanese war crimes in Asia.

Jenny retraces her journey from childhood stories in Hong Kong — dismissed at the time as prejudice — to uncovering archival evidence that her grandmother’s trauma was real, widespread, and systematically buried.
 Her research into the Rape of Nanking, forced labor, and the secret biological weapons program known as Unit 731 reveals:

• Tens of millions killed in Asia — far beyond the limited numbers most textbooks mention
 • A US–Japan bargain that granted immunity to war criminals in exchange for biological data
 • A network of scientists who went on to become respected leaders, doctors, and industrial founders
 • Documented human experimentation on Chinese civilians, Koreans, Russians — and likely Allied POWs
 • Ongoing denialism in Japanese culture, social media, and educational narratives

Richard and Jenny also draw striking parallels between wartime censorship, erased memory, and modern-day propaganda — underscoring why historical truth matters.

This episode delivers history with urgency — not as dusty archives, but as a warning about how atrocities are forgotten, rewritten, or denied when we don’t defend the evidence.

Part Two dives deeper into Nanking, comfort women, USS Panay, and the politics of global apathy — so stay tuned.

Transcript

Ep. 355 — The Fog of War and Humanity
Host: Richard Acritelli
Guest: Jenny Chan
hmTv / Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center

Richard:
Hello, and thank you for joining me today.
I’m your host, Rich Acritelli.
This podcast is a production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.

On today’s episode of The Fog of War and Humanity here on hmTv, my special guest is Jenny Chan, who will share insights from her research into Japanese atrocities during World War II.

Let’s get started.
 Jenny — where did you grow up?

Jenny:
Thank you for having me, Rich.
I was born in Hong Kong but grew up in San Francisco, and — interestingly — the work I do today ties directly back to my childhood.

When I was young, my grandmother used to tell me about the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong, and the hardships she lived through as a young woman.
 Whenever I watched Japanese cartoons or anime, she would scold me — she saw it as “Japanese brainwashing.” I thought she was being racist.

We never learned any of this in school — no mention of the occupation of Hong Kong — so I dismissed her stories.

It wasn’t until she passed away that we discovered a box of her belongings: photos, old military currency. And suddenly, her stories had context — they were evidence of lived trauma. That realization pushed me into researching the Rape of Nanking and broader archival work on World War II in Asia. Ten years later — that’s the foundation of our nonprofit.

Richard:
You grew up in China — when did you come to the United States?

Jenny:
I came here when I was 10. From elementary school through high school, I learned very little about World War II in Asia.
We might briefly touch on America’s occupation of the Philippines in the 1800s — but not on the Japanese occupation or the atrocities committed.

Richard:
Spanish-American War, 1898 — yes, that was brutal in its own right.

So you arrive in America — what were your first impressions?

Jenny:
Honestly? Not great.
Movies made America look huge and glamorous. When we landed from Hong Kong, everything felt smaller — shorter buildings, rougher roads, older buses. I was disappointed.

Did you grow up here, Rich?

Richard:
I did. I’m first-generation American.
My mother came from Ireland — one of fifteen.
My father’s family lived near here since the 1880s. So I grew up with those immigrant stories — famine, colonization, hardship.

Jenny:
Funny — I went to Ireland recently because I’d read about the famine. I assumed it was agricultural failure — but it turned out to be largely colonial exploitation. The British extracted food even as people starved. No wonder Ireland has one of the largest diasporas.

Richard:
Absolutely. The Irish were seen as troublemakers — so population drain became policy.
I relate to your point — families carry history in stories we don’t always appreciate until later.

So, you majored in history?

Jenny:
No — economics and statistics. I didn’t care for history in school — memorizing names felt pointless.
But after graduating, I realized history is context — it explains why places and systems are the way they are. That opened my curiosity.

And yes — my grandmother’s stories stayed in the back of my mind.

Richard:
You read Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking. That must have been eye-opening.

Jenny:
It was. She cited 300,000 killed — but even conservative estimates put Chinese civilian deaths around 20–40 million. So Nanking was just one visible atrocity in a vast landscape of violence.

That led me to search for research centers — none existed, so I began digging myself. Around that time, Senator Feinstein prepared to declassify Unit 731 documents. That brought me into the archives, where I found U.S. intelligence had seized Japanese war crime materials.

I started scanning, digitizing, fundraising — because no nonprofit was doing this work.

Richard:
You went to Washington? College Park?

Jenny:
Yes — the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The California branch had little of what I needed. College Park was incredible — overwhelming boxes of material, redactions, discoveries.

One researcher next to me was scanning Nazi war records. He handed me a folder on Japanese brutality in the Philippines — and it opened an entirely new line of inquiry.

You walk in with one goal and leave with five.

Richard:
Exactly. History is detective work — you chase one lead and find three more.

So let’s get into your findings.
 You want to start with Unit 731?

Jenny:
Yes. Unit 731 was Japan’s biological weapons research facility.

When Japan surrendered in 1945, they dynamited labs to destroy evidence. Everything the U.S. uncovered was simply what survived their efforts to erase it.

The documents show secret U.S.–Japan negotiations — American officials realized Japan had done research Western nations could never ethically perform. That data was valuable — especially as the Cold War began.

Unit 731 began in the early 1930s.
 Its founder had done illegal human research in Tokyo but moved operations to occupied Manchuria — first in a soy sauce factory, then an entire village taken over and walled off.

There were science dormitories, laboratories, bomb testing grounds — it was a whole town dedicated to experimentation.

Richard:
I’ve heard they built tunnels and infrastructure to hide it.

Jenny:
They did. And their experiments were horrific.
Freezing prisoners to study frostbite — amputating limbs — testing anthrax, plague, glanders.

Documents show collaboration with U.S. biodefense programs — including Fort Detrick.

And the most startling part:
 After the war, the lead scientists faked their deaths — but U.S. intelligence found them.
 They were granted immunity in exchange for their data. Some went on to become mayors, doctors, pharmaceutical founders.

Richard:
So mass murderers became civic leaders.

Jenny:
Exactly. If you kill one person, you’re a murderer. If you kill tens of thousands in the service of empire — you become a hero in some societies.

Richard:
Their earliest experiments were on Chinese civilians — correct?

Jenny:
Yes — Chinese, Koreans, Russians. But evidence indicates POWs from Allied nations, including Americans, were also used.

A book called The Death Factory originally documented this, but later editions removed the claim after Congressional hearings declared it unproven.

However, based on wartime labor records and trial transcripts, I’ve found that Unit 731 did experiment on Allied POWs — the first edition was right.

Richard:
I once knew a man who survived the Bataan Death March — shipped to camps in Taiwan, Korea, finally liberated in Manchuria at 90 pounds.
What you’re describing mirrors his suffering.

Jenny:
Exactly — Mukden prisoners were used for vaccine trials and labor. Diaries from American POWs record daily deaths from starvation, frostbite, medical abuse.

I visited that camp site — now a museum — preserved because local citizens demanded it.

Richard:
China’s politics aside — they haven’t forgotten these atrocities.
Meanwhile, in Japan — textbooks downplay war crimes.

Jenny:
It’s not just textbooks — it’s social media denial, harassment, trolling.
People call comfort women “paid prostitutes.” Holocaust denial shows up alongside Nanking denial.

We’ve had Japanese commenters claim China attacked Pearl Harbor — that’s how warped public memory can become.

That’s why education is vital.

Richard:
Exactly — your research matters because you’re preserving truth.
Streaming platforms, documentaries — they help reopen public memory.

The Japanese government and military acted together — state policy enabled atrocity.

Jenny — we’re going to continue this conversation in Part Two. Next time, we’ll explore Nanking, comfort women, USS Panay, and the politics of silence during the Depression.

We appreciate you joining us — especially so early from California.
 We’ll be back with Jenny Chan for an extremely important continuation.