ACT V: MANCHUKUO

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.

Niels Bohr

May 10th, AD 1943, Pingfang, Distrit of Harbin, Manchukuo (aka Manchuria, actual Northern China), Unit 731 Complex

It has been six years since Yoshinori Komatsu, a young Japanese scientist, left Germany just to end up in the puppet state of Manchukuo in China, something he never imagined could happen once he returned to Japan in a forced way.

Because of his "incident" that Komatsu had in Frankfurt with Dr. von Verschuer, he was punished, for putting it nicely, since he had basically made a mockery of himself in front of the Germans, and tainted his country's name while he was supposed to be studying a scholarship in that western country.

In attempting to defend his revolutionary theory in front of someone who basically sympathized with the Nazis, not to mention that his model student, Josef Mengele, was equal to or much worse than his mentor, not only had Komatsu been expelled from the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene, but he had basically jeopardized his own life. And as punishment for dishonoring the name of the Japanese Empire abroad, he was sent to what appeared to be more of a prison camp with the look of a water purification plant with the purpose of working there as many of the scientists and doctors that worked in such grim place.

But, in spite of the circumstances, Komatsu's work was basically similar to his previous work in Germany: He worked in his own medical laboratory, where he was able to work with animal specimens, on this time completely alone and without having to deal with annoying assistants, or as in his former workplace, racist people like Mengele.

Still, Komatsu could not help but feel bad about having to work in such an unpleasant place as that prison camp, and much more in a foreign country like China, or in this case, Manchukuo. While he has never cared much for war, nor is he was exceptionally patriotic, the fact that the conflict had indirectly affected him because of his own pride in trying to defend his theories was something that was beginning to sour him.

And one of the things that made him more bitter was the large number of prisoners who came to that place almost continuously. As far as he understood it, many of the prisoners who came to that place were mostly common criminals, bandits and prisoners of war, not to mention political prisoners who opposed the Japanese occupation in that region. While at first Komatsu did not care much for the fate of those poor men, since it was none of his business in the first place, there were several things that began to seem rather bizarre to him, even though his own theory was unusual enough to begin with.

And because of the large number of prisoners who had recently arrived at the complex in recent months, especially since the war began to escalate significantly, Komatsu had no choice but to speak with his immediate superior to find out what was going on.

And that superior was no one else than Major General Shiro Ishii.

Komatsu knew very well that Ishii had a reputation for demanding much of the men who worked for him, not to mention that he was a very strict man. But, for Komatsu's disgrace, it also turned out that slightly disheveled-looking man with glasses and who appeared to be a nobody, was in fact an extremely disgusting person.

May 11, AD 1943. Shiro Ishii's Personal Office

-"Come in."-

After receiving authorization to enter, Komatsu entered Ishii's office somewhat nervously, especially when he saw the military man's face at the sight of him. It was not a face that anyone wanted to see at the time, since it was more than noticeable that Ishii was not in the mood to receive visitors. Before he entered his office, Ishii was reading some books at the time, something he had to stop doing once that young scientist was in front of him.

-"Good morning, Major Ishii, how are you, sir?"-

As mentioned earlier, Ishii wasn't exactly in the mood for visitors, much less to see someone like Komatsu in person. The Japanese officer, since the young scientist arrived in China via Japan since he had to leave Germany, never liked him in the first place because Komatsu's work was very different from the work that Ishii and the rest of his countrymen did there, so his response was very brutal.

-"What do you want, Komatsu? Don't you see how busy I am?"-

Komatsu swallowed saliva when he heard his answer. Ishii had a fame for being a very outspoken man, but that was the first time he heard him speak in a very rude manner, at least for Japanese standards.

-"I wanted to talk to you about some issues that have been bothering me for several days now. I hope you can clarify them for me, if it's not too much trouble on your part, of course."-

-"Which issues do you want to discuss with me, Komatsu? As far as I can remember, it's the first time since you've been here in Manchukuo that you've bothered to talk to me about any particular subject, since you spend your time alone in that lab of yours working with animals."-

Komatsu took a deep breath before continuing to speak with his superior.

-"Well, it has something to do with the large number of prisoners who have recently arrived here since several months ago."-

-"The prisoners, you say?"-

-"Yes."-

-"And, what's your problem with them?"- Ishii replied dryly to him.

-"If it's not uncomfortable for you, and with all due respect, we've recently received more prisoners here than usual, compared to other prisons in other parts of Manchukuo."-

-"And so what? You know very well we are at war, and it is obvious that there are many prisoners of war around here. Or have you not noticed that since you arrived?"-

-"Well, yes, but I have noticed that the number of prisoners we have received is larger than usual compared to other times."- Komatsu replied somewhat nervously, bearing in mind what he was going to say in front of his own senior officer. -"I'm not usually very interested in what you and your men do regarding your work, but lately I've heard a lot of strange sounds coming from the other sections of these facilities."-

-"Ah, you mean...?"-

-"Screams of pain and terror that I've heard lately come from over there."-

Ishii looked at Komatsu with a serious gaze, and with a most certainly ghoulish smile on his face.

-"I see, you seem to mean all those screams those Manchurian monkeys make, don't you?"- Ishii replied with a mixture of happiness and some displeasure as he was confronted by his own subordinate to such a question, but without losing his poise at all times.

For reasons that are more than obvious, Komatsu was truly horrified to hear it from his own superior. He knew very well that Ishii and his men spent their free time torturing the prisoners who arrived there in order to get intelligence information, but what Komatsu sensed was that Ishii was doing more than just torturing prisoners.

And he knew well that those screams were not the product of any ordinary torture, considering his own medical background.

-"Ma-Manchurian monkeys, you said?!"- Komatsu began to stutter when he heard that. For him, he didn't know what was worse, that Ishii called the inhabitants of Manchukuo monkeys, or the fact of comparing them to monkeys. Even monkeys would have deserved better treatment than those prisoners from his personal point of view.

-"Yes, And we're still waiting for another bunch of monkeys and logs to arrive here by tomorrow".-

-"Logs?!"-

When he heard those words, Komatsu noticed the kind of person standing in front of him who was his own commanding officer: Not only was Shiro Ishii an incredibly brutal, inhuman being, to the extent that he considered other humans as little more than animals or even inanimate objects, but he was also apparently willing to experiment with them, so Komatsu has only just realized from his medical knowledge.

When he heard that word "logs", Komatsu could not help but feel enormous disgust as he had never felt in his life, even if he had never had much interest in other human beings. It was one thing to experiment with animals, and even Komatsu tried his best to avoid sacrificing their lives for science, and another one was to experiment with humans.

-"Do you have any other problem with it, Komatsu?"-

Komatsu remained speechless after that.

-"Why are you looking at me like that?"-

Ishii rose from his seat furiously at the sight of Komatsu's visage in his face as he heard Ishii bragging about experiencing as humans, and the aforementioned man would not tolerate further accusation by that unfortunate scientist who stood there as punishment for being expelled from a German research center.

-"I'm surprised, Komatsu, that you look at me that way, considering we're both doctors and we're both in the same business of experimenting with living things."-

The young scientist from Hiroshima still remained silent, probably to avoid further worsening the situation, as he did in Frankfurt. It was best not to give Ishii any more reason to hate him.

-"I know all about you, Komatsu, thanks to General Oshima, and the mess you got yourself into in Germany."- Ishii keeps bragging on his face. -"You worked in a very prestigious laboratory, and for wanting to play hero in front of the Germans, General Oshima sent you here to Manchukuo. But I don't know what that SOB was thinking sending me a punk like you here."-

At that moment, Ishii looked up at a book he had on his desk. That book was nothing less than the thesis that Komatsu had previously written and that was rejected in Germany by Dr. Von Verschuer in Frankfurt on orders from the Fuhrer. Ishii, without thinking twice, takes the book, and wields it in his hands.

-"All right, let's see: Advanced Genetics And Genetic Design for Accelerated Evolution of the Species. Is this the thesis you've been writing about your evolutionary theory that you've been doing ever since?"-

-"Yes, sir."-

-"Since you came to Manchukuo, I have been reading this thesis carefully, and I must admit that it contains several ideas that I have never read in my life, some of them very revolutionary in the field of both biology and zoology, among other fields that you had the consideration of taking into account when designing your theory."-

-"Thank you si..."-

SLAP

Before Komatsu could continue to speak, Ishii slams his face with the book, causing his glasses to fall to the ground from the blow.

-"It's a pity that most of this is nothing more than moronic nonsense written by some punk out from the southern boonies, who may have had his fun time with animals."-

Komatsu could not help but feel angry at the insinuation that he had carnal relations with animals, but he decided to remain silent again, while he was picking up his glasses from the ground.

-"What's wrong with you? Can't you accept an honest criticism of your work? Is it because you know very well that I'm telling the truth?"-

Komatsu stood up for himself and decided to replicate Ishii in a way that was most appropriate to his circumstances.

-"I am not a zoophile, sir."-

-"Well, at least I think so. I don't think General Oshima would have wasted his time sending a zoophilic bastard here to China. If that were the case, he would have had you hanged back in Japan, and I think it would have been more fun if you had been hanged by the testicles, and with a tanuki up your ass, by the way. ha ha ha!"- Ishii laughs at such a macabre joke he made at Komatsu's expense.

The scientist, again, remained silent at such words.

-"To be honest, you and I are not so different, since our work focuses on looking for ways to improve people's lives, through research with live specimens. Or isn't that what you do in your lab as well?"-

Silence again from Komatsu's mouth.

-"The main difference between your work and mine is that MY work has been of great use to the good of the Empire and its inhabitants, while yours is basically worthless. In fact, I don't know why they sent you to Germany to play with animals in the first place. Of all the idiots they had to send to Europe, they had to send a childish bonehead out from Hiroshima."- Ishii keeps gloating. -"The Empire doesn't need idiots playing with ranch animals, nor do we need veterinarians or idealists with notions taken from some low-fashion science fiction book. We need SOLDIERS, warriors who fight for the fatherland, and who do not hesitate to kill and die for it. And idiots like you, who should do something useful for their country in this place, have no place here."-

Komatsu makes a startled face, thinking of the worst that could happen to him at the time.

-"But don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you, since I have orders to extract everything useful from you while you are here in Manchukuo. You'll keep doing your job while I do mine, but I don't want to hear another nonsense like this again while you're in the Unit 731, otherwise I might change my mind. Do I make myself clear?"-

-"Yes, sir."-

-"Then, if you don't have another worthless thing to say, get out of here before I make you regret being nice to you!"-

Without a second thought, Komatsu left Ishii's office as quickly as he could, while that ruthless man sat down again in his place, very angry at having been questioned by that scientist whom he did not have the slightest sympathy for.

-"Goddamned son of a bitch. "- Ishii cursed in an attempt to unleash all the anger he had repressed when dealing with Komatsu. -"Why Tokyo send me freaks to my command, instead of sending me someone useful?"-

III

Once out of the office, Komatsu went to his laboratory, really depressed to see that his superior was another racist maniac like Mengele when he was working in Germany. He felt that his fate was changing for the worse as he saw his talent mocked. And as his very revolutionary evolution theory, which was the most important job in his life, was despised and disregarded by all.

And to make matters worse, an Imperial soldier, who at the time stood near the office listening to the discussion between him and Major Ishii in secret, approached Komatsu with a certain malicious smile.

-"Hey, doctor, seems that the Major whooped your ass there, didn't you?"-

Komatsu ignored the soldier as he walked past him, something that the man does not find amusing.

-"Dumbass."-

The scientist, without being able to say anything else, and with a more than obvious depressive countenance, went to his lab, trying to ponder on what had happened so far.

-"Why? Why? Why do these things have to happen to me? What the hell did I do to deserve this?"-

Komatsu began to think for himself this in his mind, trying to make sense of the fact that he was basically a prisoner, in a way, in that depressing, violent and inhumane place. Not only was he being humiliated by his superior, but he was insinuated that he should participate in those barbaric and depraved acts that were taking place there.

Once out of the main complex, Komatsu met with two other doctors, who began to talk about him quietly as he walked past them, and not in a good way...

-"Hey, isn't that Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, who came from Frankfurt after doing a show there?"-

-"Yeah, he's that idiot from the boonies who got kicked out of Germany and sent here to Manchukuo from Japan. Too bad for that poor guy, huh?"-

-"You're right, I don't know why they sent a vet here instead of sending a skilled doctor. It's not like we need more than we have here, is it?"-

-"Well, maybe they sent him to treat all those Manchurian monkeys in prison cells. Maybe in Tokyo they realized that it wasn't worth sending doctors and they are starting to send veterinarians instead, which would be a pity for us. HA HA HA HA!"-

-"Whoa, hey, calm down! Do you want him to hear us?"-

The other doctor regained his composure after laughing at such a sickening joke.

-"Well, on second thought, taking into account how the things are currently going, I wouldn't be surprised if they started sending carpenters and woodcutters here. After all, we're going to need them to cut all those extra "logs" that are coming to this place."-

To the misfortune of both doctors, Komatsu listened to all the whispering between the two men, and could not help but feel even more depressed than he already was. He could not believe that, apart from Ishii, there were other people willing to participate in the barbarity that occurred in that place, and especially doctors, people who had sworn the Hippocratic Oath to protect the life of living beings.

But those men, who seemed to be carried away not only by their low instincts, but also by a false sense of patriotism, seemed to care nothing for them. Even Komatsu, who preferred to deal with animals rather than human beings, could not help but feel a sense of shame and disgust towards those people. Especially those men who were calling other prisoners as little more than "logs", inanimate things that only deserved to be cut down and eliminated as such.

But he couldn't do anything else about it, and the only thing he could do at that time was to return to his place of work, the only place where he could have a space for reflection.

Komatsu's laboratory was separated from the rest of the Unit 731's penal complex, which was very useful to him, who longed to have some privacy in his work. The place was a rather old and dilapidated building, compared to other parts of the complex that were in better condition. And despite the reluctance of both Major Ishii, as well as several members of the senior ranks of the Imperial Japanese Army, to his work, Komatsu was allowed to take his specimens he had previously in Germany, which were sent from that country to Japan, and again to Manchukuo, which was also very convenient for the young scientist.

But for Komatsu, that gloomy place was much better than having to work in the main complex, and the only place where he could have a semblance of peace and serenity.

-"I'm home."-

Upon hearing these words, the Hiroshima scientist was greeted with a candid meow. And that meow came from Eiko, the tailless cat Komatsu received from Japan when he was in Germany, who was in a cage near the lab door.

Without even thinking further, he decides to take the cat out of the cage, which quickly climbs up on the scientist's shoulders, and begins to purr in his ear, while nibbling it.

-"How are you, cutie-pie? Were you missing me when I was outside?"-

Eiko emitted a meow of bliss, and she curled her body over Komatsu's neck.

Meanwhile, Komatsu began feeding his specimens, starting with Tidj, the little mouse that was brought to him from the Netherlands just like Eiko. And while he was feeding her, he began to read some of the data he had written about her, but hadn't had the time to verify it properly, and he needed to check it again.

-"OK"- Komatsu read the notebook with Tidj's data. -"Theres is something strange about Tidj: Normally mice reproduce very quickly and explosively, but this mouse reproduces at a faster rate than normal for her species. In just under three months, she has had about ten litters. Not bad for this little girl."-

The scientist realized at that moment that the mouse began to scratch the glass wall of her cage. At first he didn't know the reason, thinking that maybe she was hungry, but quickly realized something rather strange, as well as disturbing: Tidj seemed to have her gaze turned to another cage, where Komatsu held a hamster named Tam-Tam. At first, Komatsu thought that the mouse only looked at Tam-Tam by chance, but he noticed, thanks to her physical behavior, as well as other particular signs, that the mouse wanted to be with Tam-Tam so that the hamster could impregnate her.

-"Gee, I knew the Dutch had a reputation for being very liberal, but I never imagined that reputation extended even to rodents."- Komatsu snarked about this discovery, taking into account Tidj's own origins.

But there was an even stranger thing about Tidj: Despite being of enemy species, she did not seem to be afraid of Eiko, despite being a cat. The weirdest thing of all was that Eiko had no interest in harming Tidj either, much less eating her, and even Komatsu did a little experiment to see how both animals reacted near each other a few days ago, and the results left him surprised: Not only did Tidj enjoy the company of the cat, but Eiko also enjoyed the rodent's company as well, and even both animals took turns licking each other very lovingly and slept together as like two good old friends. Why Eiko did not want to eat Tidj was a mystery that even Komatsu, as a scientist and doctor, could not fully explain.

-"This is really weird, though."- Komatsu began to think for himself, seeing how both animals were always together despite one of them the predator and the other the prey. -"Normally the first reaction that a cat would have when seeing a mouse would be to try to eat it, or at least play with it as if it were its prey, but these two creatures prefer to play between them than have the roles designated by nature."-

To make things stranger to the Japanese scientist, Eiko and Tidj were not the only animals that had unusual behaviors for their species. Other animals, such as the Chinese horse Xiaoma, had somewhat unusual behavioral patterns, such as not allowing anyone to climb on it, except Komatsu. And others, like the Welsh vixen D, had behaviors that were not very common for a fox, such as the fact that she seemed to have her life in a very tidy manner, judging by her daily pattern of behavior that Komatsu had noticed since days before.

Thanks to all those animals, and the experiments that Komatsu did with them, most of them non-lethal, (and if he had to sacrifice any specimens, most of those who had to die were mice, hamsters and mostly insects, and yet he preferred to kill insects rather than mammals) allowed the young scientist to spend his time trying to think of other more kind things, instead of thinking of the terrible environment in which he was in that forsaken region of China, and which had become little more than a hell on earth, a kind of black hole where the light of human dignity could not escape from there, and all the worst of humanity had gathered in that terrible, grim place.

And with regard to that place, once it was already dark, he could not help but hear the concert of panic, terror and pain screams that came out by those prisoners tortured by Shiro Ishii and his "assistants" (if they can be called that), And those unfortunate souls who had the misfortune of surviving previous torture, Ishii and his group of psychos who called themselves "doctors" began experimenting with them in ways that, even if Komatsu could not see what happened, it was more than evident that it was something so terrible and beyond description that even he began to feel disgusted.

That young scientist, who had the disgrace of being in such a wretched spot, and who had experienced first-hand how terrible those men with power could be, could not help but think who were more terrible: The animals with which he worked daily in his laboratory, or those monsters who called themselves human beings who, under the pretence of patriotism, were willing to commit such vile and despicable acts in the name of their homeland.

And this was more than evident when he saw how two animals, a cat and a mouse, could be together without the cat trying to eat the rodent, while those beasts that called themselves "men" were even willing to eat their fellow man if it helped to eliminate the last of them from the face of the earth.

Not being able to bear to hear any more of this, Komatsu went to his room, which was in the same building where his laboratory was, and tried to sleep, in a more than futile attempt, because although the room had several acoustic protections to avoid hearing the noises that came from outside, even he could hear the screams coming from the torture done to the prisoners, not to mention even worst things.

And the normally immutable Yoshinori Komatsu could do nothing but cry in his bed...

One thing became more than evident to him: That famous proverb written by Titus Maccius Plautus, "Homo homini lupus", translated as "A man is a wolf to another man" became more than true for that scientist.

And even that proverb could be considered an insult to the wolves themselves.

September 5th, AD 1943, Unit 731 Complex, Yoshinori Komatsu's Laboratory, 7:00 PM

The passage of time in the penal complex became slower and slower every day for Komatsu, who for several months now had to endure both the myriad of criticisms about his work on behalf of Major Ishii and his "colleagues", as well as almost daily listening to the "work" (if you can call it so) of that psychopath in uniform he liked to perform on his prisoners, something that for the young Japanese scientist was becoming more and more unbearable by having to listen and know the level of depravity that took place there.

It was more than evident that in that dreadful place human beings were the subject of medical experiments in such terrible, nasty ways, that he didn't even want to try to think about it, and every time he heard cries of torture coming from the main complex, the first thing he did was to enter his laboratory and work with his animal specimens, in a futile attempt to distract his attention on the subject.

And even the animals could not help but feel bad when they heard all that terrifying "concert" of screams of pain coming from the prisoners, since they began to get impatient when they perceived the terrible atmosphere that was felt in that repulsive environment.

But it was more than evident that the situation would not last forever, since something in that day would change everything, though not in the way Komatsu had hoped.

-"Come in, please."-

A middle-aged man entered Komatsu's laboratory, with a grimace of displeasure on his face, as if the presence of the young scientist from Hiroshima caused him too much discomfort for that man.

-"I need to speak with you, Dr. Komatsu. And very urgently, if possible."-

Seeing that man's angry face, Komatsu deduced that it was something very important that needed to be discussed at that moment.

-"Is there anything special I can do for you, Dr. Kazama?"-

That man was Dr. Masao Kazama, one of the heads of Unit 731's medical department and his immediate superior in medical matters, besides Major Ishii, despite the fact that Komatsu worked with veterinary medicine and Kazama with human general medicine, especially as a medical surgeon.

Since Komatsu arrived at the Unit 731's penal complex in Manchukuo, China, both doctors had been fighting each other continuously since the Hiroshima-born doctor came to that place, since it was evident that Kazama did not like Komatsu's work at all, as he worked with animals rather than humans. Kazama wondered why the hell Tokyo had sent a veterinarian with zoological expertise and strange ideas to a place like that, considering that Kazama was as willing to experiment on humans as Major Ishii was, much for Komatsu's complete displeasure, who never indulged in such acts.

But at the time, something had happened that Kazama felt was the height of the whole affair.

-"Yes, a lot of things about you"-

-"Me, sir?"-

-"Yes. I had the opportunity, or better said, the misfortune, to read your theory that you have been writing since you were in Germany..."-

-"You mean my thesis I wrote? Technically I started writing it when I was in Japan, and although the main thesis contains the theory in its main aspects, there are still many things I would like to add as needed."- Komatsu replied in an attempt to rectify his superior.

-"Yes, I see that."-

-"Is there a problem with my theory, sir? I am surprised that you have taken the trouble to read it since I am here in Manchukuo. I always thought you wouldn't mind reading it."-

Kazama breathes deeply before continuing the conversation, causing a further silence that was uncomfortable for Komatsu, who gulped afterwards.

-"I must admit that your theory has very interesting and even revolutionary elements in the field of zoology, and even several fields of science that I never imagined a lowly vet like you would have bothered to touch."-

-"Technically, I am a zoologist with experience in biology, although I also have experience in veterinary medicine, sir."- Komatsu rectified Kazama again, ignoring the insult he made about Komatsu being a lowly vet.

-"Well, anyway, at the end of the day, you've bothered to deal with several fields that would apply to your theory, such as sociology, law, agriculture, psychology, psychiatry and even theology, considering that you're an atheist, haven't you?"-

-"Yes."-

-"And there are even some interesting notions of astronomy in your theory. Not bad for a vet, if I have to say so myself."-

Komatsu realized that Kazama wanted to come up with something very specific, so he decided to interrupt his talk.

-"Could you at least tell me the point you want to make? I don't think you bothered to come all the way down here just to discuss very specific points about my theory, when you never bothered to do so in the six years I've been here, did you?"-

Kazama, seeing that his subordinate had already begun to get angry, decided to get to the point and say what he thought at once.

-"WHAT KIND OF NON-SENSE HAVE YOU WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK?"-

Though Komatsu was accustomed to hearing those words, the tone in which they were spoken to him began to discomfort him.

-"I beg your pardon, sir?"- The young scientist replied, trying to pretend that what his superior said had not caused him any inconvenience. Obviously, Kazama doesn't buy this.

-"Don't try to pretend you don't know a goddamn thing, Dr. Komatsu!"- Kazama shouted at Komatsu in an attempt to get his attention, causing all the animals in the laboratory to wake up and start making noise, for Komatsu's annoyance.

-"Why, Dr. Kazama, you didn't have to shout like that!"- The Hiroshima scientist very kindly replied to Kazama as he tried to quiet the animals, starting with Eiko, the cat. -"You just woke up my animals with your yelling."-

Komatsu's attitude of petting the cat while arguing with Kazama only caused the latter to become even more enraged, as it only reaffirmed what he was arguing about with regard to his young subordinate from southern Japan. He could not believe that man had the audacity to speak to him as Komatsu did what he hated most about him: Dealing with animals.

-"Before continuing with this conversation, I would like to know if you would tell me in which place we are."- Kazama asked, trying at least to suppress his anger, without losing track in his interlocutor.

-"Manchukuo"-

-"And can you at least tell me the name of this place?"-

-"Unit 731 Penal Complex"-

-"And can you, at least, say what we theoretically do in this place?"-

-"A prison camp."-

-"And can you say what kind of prisoners we lock up here?"-

Komatsu, on hearing this last question, gulped and remained silent, because he knew very well what the answer was, an answer that Kazama did not want to hear at the time, however right it was.

-"If you do not wish to answer this last question, I will answer it for you: Technically we have prisoners of war here, but the most important thing of all is the race of the people we work with in this place."-

-"Do you mean, as you vulgarly say among yourselves, the Manchurian monkeys?"- Komatsu responded in an extremely sarcastic and somewhat mocking fashion to his own boss, since Kazama was basically implying, in a very superficial way, the kind of work he did with the prisoners who had the misfortune of being with him.

To his surprise, Kazama did not seem offended by the words of his subordinate who was on his charge, but seemed to take those words kindly, and did not hesitate to give his own response.

-"Heh! You don't seem to be completely cut off from what's going on here, do you?"-

-"I heard about the subject from Major Ishii's own mouth, so I'm not ignorant about what's going on in this place as far I know."-

-"There's another equally important question: Why the hell do you work with animals in a prison camp?"-

Komatsu knew very well where his boss wanted to go with that question, but decided to answer it as nicely as possible.

-"My specialty is working with animals. I don't work with human beings. Simple as that."-

-"Isn't working with monkeys the same as working with your animals in this laboratory? At the end of the day you will get the same results, so I say."-

Komatsu, who was already beginning to be bothered by the presence of that unpleasant man, especially when he heard such a racist and xenophobic tirade in his own face, made a supreme effort to remain calm, but the mere fact of equating his work with the work of those demented men in uniform like Ishii and company was the last straw for him.

-"As I said before, I only work with animals, not humans, let alone those people you and your people call "Manchurian monkeys" or "logs"."-

What Komatsu didn't take into account was that Kazama also didn't take his words very kindly either...

-"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU LITTLE BASTARD?!"-

Dr. Kazama, in a fit of rage, took Komatsu from the neck of his lab coat, and starred him against an empty experiment table beside them. Komatsu could not believe that middle-aged man, of simple and weak appearance, was able to throw him so forcefully towards the table, although he had previously remembered that Kazama had studied Aikido in his youth.

-"WHA-WHAT?"-

-"WATCH THAT BIG MOUTH OF YOURS, YOU STUPID BRAT!"- Kazama kept shouting at Komatsu so close to his face that he could smell the ethylic breath of that scientist, evidencing beforehand that Kazama was drunk, though at that time the fact that he was inebriated was the least of all the problems for Komatsu. -"Do you think you're very clever just because you wrote a very interesting and novel theory, when in reality it's just nonsense?"-

On the other hand, Komatsu tried to remain calm at all times, as a negative response from him could only make things worse than they were at that moment.

-"Doctor, please calm down, you're in a very inconvenient state right now!"-

-"And you think I'm going to calm down after reading THAT crappy thesis of yours for six DAMN years and see all the crazy ideas you have in mind for your creations?"- Kazama continued shouting in his colleague's face so that his smell of alcohol from his mouth began to make him dizzy. -"Is that why you work with animals? Do you want to replace us all with your beasts?"-

-"Sir, I think you're misunderstanding my theory and my ideas, BUT PLEASE CALM DOWN, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"-

-"I'm not going to calm down while watching you destroy the world with your creations! That's what you pretend, isn't it?"-

-"OF COURSE NOT!"-

Komatsu did not understand why Kazama began to say that his main idea of his theory was the destruction of the world and that of replacing its inhabitants with "his creations", when the purpose of the theory was something very different, although it had a certain military background, but it did not involve humans at all. At least it was much better than involving human soldiers in the first place, although at that time he reminded him of the incident he had with Mengele in Frankfurt six years ago for similar reasons.

But what was evident in that fight was that Kazama was babbling things because of his drunkenness, and the most important thing was that he had to be stopped before he did anything worse right there.

-"Please, Doctor, I beg you to calm down before you do something you could regret later!"- Komatsu began pleading to the man as he continued to threaten him at the table with his own hands. -"We can talk about what you want another day, but please stop making a scene while you reek on sake!"-

Seeing the terror face of his subordinate and realizing what he was doing at the time, Kazama stopped at once and loosened his grip on Komatsu as he tried to ponder what had happened.

-"Damn... What have I done?"-

And at that moment, the doctor sat in a chair and he began to cry, something Komatsu had never seen from him in the time he had spent in that horrible place.

-"sob I'm such an idiot... sob A big, fucking, idiot."-

Kazama continued to mourn himself in the chair, while his subordinate was immobilized when he saw the man he considered until then as a despicable being crying like a child.

-"I don't know who's worse right now, you or me. sob"- Kazama continued to weep beside Komatsu, the latter only observing. -"At least your hands aren't stained with human blood like mine. I've committed such vile acts that I don't deserve to be called a doctor anymore."-

-"Please, doctor, don't say more..."-

-"DON'T SAY MORE, IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?! ARE YOU ASKING ME NOT TO SAY MORE?"-

During that time, a stony silence was felt in the laboratory by both men, as no one dared to utter a single word about the issue right now, much less Kazama.

-"It is true that I am currently under the influence of alcohol, but what does not change is the fact that I am a mockery of human being who does not deserve the forgiveness of anyone, much less yours."-

Komatsu remained silent without a word to his superior.

-"After reading your theory, I thought that me, Major Ishii and the others were the only monsters that inhabited this godforsaken wretched place."- Kazama continued his ranting without waiting for Komatsu to respond or not. -"But after reading your work, I realized that I just found someone who could be a lot worse than all of us put together. HEH! I could even say that person is much worse than Tojo and all the idiots behind this stupid war."- Points his finger on himself. -"And that includes us Japanese, Americans, Russians, Germans, Italians, British, etc., etc., etc.,"-

-"What are you getting at with such a string of nonsense?"- Komatsu replied, alarmed by the attitude of his boss as he saw him with a certain face of sadness mixed with hatred toward him.

-"Just in case you haven't noticed... You're that person I'm talking about."-

Komatsu was stunned to hear that, since he was basically being compared, not only to Dr. Kazama along with Shiro Ishii and his men, but also to Hideki Tojo, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and all the world leaders behind the war. Normally that would have been enough to make him angry, considering what he had been through himself on the subject, but for some reason what Kazama said was much more complicated than a mere diatribe against his subordinate.

-"Me?"- The Hiroshima-born scientist asked. -"Well, to be fair, it's not the first time I've been told that, but I think you and a lot of people who've read my work have been misinterpreting the basic points of my theory, since..."-

-"Komatsu"- Kazama interrupted his interlocutor, while calling him by his last name without the title of "doctor", something that would be offensive to him, although under the circumstances, that would be the least of the problems. -"You're either trying to change the subject, or you're more of an idiot than I thought. Or maybe you're not fully aware of what you have in your hands."-

This last part of the conversation began to intrigue Komatsu, for there was something Kazama wanted to make clear, and it was not that simple.

-"What do you mean with that "I'm not fully aware" part?"-

Kazama rose from the chair where he stood, even with tears in his eyes, and began to look at the young Japanese scientist in front of him, with a look that inspired fear and hatred at the same time.

-"Komatsu, you have a power in your hands that has the ability to not only change everything we know about science to date, but you also have the power to change the world from its foundations, including how we relate to each other, something that even none of the people I have mentioned so far have been able to do, at least theoretically."-

-"Well, I don't think I am so arrogant to get to that point, since my main goal is to do something that could help others without many unnecessary sacrifi..."-

-"Listen to me, young man!"- Kazama interrupted Komatsu again. -"That power you normally have would be a power that could be used for good, but, from what I'm reading, there may be something darker in that theory of yours than you want to admit."-

-"Are you pretending that I plan to conquer the world or something like that?- Komatsu asked quite annoyed at such an affirmation from his boss. -"I'm not that crazy to do something like this, and considering what's going on in the world, I don't think this planet needs another madman to ruin it more than it already is!"-

-"You don't seem to understand a damn thing what I'm implying."- Kazama explained himself. -"You don't plan to conquer the world. What you're trying to do is destroy the world and replace it with your creations. Also, you don't plan on doing that right now, you plan to do it when this war is over."-

Komatsu angrily face-palmed himself after hearing such a thing.

-"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT THAT I HAVE NO INTENTION OF CONQUERING THE WORLD, OR SOME NONSENSE LIKE THAT?"- The zoologist angrily replied to his superior. -"Besides, nowhere in my theory is there mentioned the conquest of the world, its destruction, or some kind of insane thing like that you mentioned."

Again, a sheer silence was felt in the place...

-"Sir, I think you already drank too much sake, and that's why you're saying all this nonsense. I would recommend that you go back to your room, and when you're sober, we'll talk about whatever you want."- Komatsu commented, as he took Kazama's arm and directed him toward the door of the laboratory. -"For the moment, this conversation is over."-

The man calmly accepted the help of his subordinate without saying anything else, and left the laboratory. It was obvious that he still smelled of cheap sake, but that was the least of it, although Komatsu was surprised that Kazama had accepted his help to leave the place.

But suddenly, while Kazama seemed to be heading for his room, he didn't seem to want to end the issue...

-"DO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO LIVE TO SEE THE WORLD YOU WANT TO CREATE? DO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO WITNESS HOW YOU DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE?"- Kazama began shouting as he stood in the main courtyard of the penal complex, while a hard rain fell on the place, when sunlight had already fallen and it was all dark.

-"Dr. Kazama, please stop screaming! You're making a fool of yourself out there!"- Komatsu shouted in shame, as his superior screamed in that place with a certain sense of pain in his voice.

And then...

-"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"-

-"DOCTOR, PLEASE STOP DOING THAT!"-

And before he could say anything else, Kazama drew a gun from his coat, first pointing it at Komatsu...

-"HA HA HA HA! Do you think I'm going to see the day you destroy MY WORLD? I'd rather die in my own hands than in yours, instead of watching this world being filled with YOUR beasts!"-

Komatsu, obviously, was alarmed to see how things had turned to bad so suddenly.

-"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"-

-"Besides, this world doesn't need any more lunatics like you and me, so consider my death as a way to apologize to you and all the people I murdered in the name of science! I hope you don't have to do the same thing someday when faced with the same dilemma, if there is any place left standing where you can do it, of course."-

-"Please, doctor, we can talk this over quietly, but don't do anything stupid now!"-

-"Stupid? Me? Right now I'm doing the most sane thing I've ever done in my whole life, something I should have done for many years since I set foot in this goddamn hellhole! And after reading your work, I think it's time to leave this world before I go on living in a world doomed to be destroyed anyway!"-

-"PLEASE, DON'T DO THAT!"-

-"So long, Yoshinori Komatsu, I WAIT FOR YOU IN HELL!"-

And quickly, Kazama points his gun at his head and pulls the trigger. The deafening sound of the shot was heard throughout the complex, and Kazama fell dead on the floor. On the other hand, Komatsu was stunned, powerless to do anything else after seeing that his superior, Dr. Masao Kazama, had committed suicide in front of him.

-"No... please... Tell me this is some kind of sick joke..."-

The young scientist said this while on his knees as he saw what happened to his superior.

And at that time, lightning strikes sounded all over Manchukuo's territory, while Komatsu's animals, who had heard the whole event, began to make noises, especially the canines such as wolves and dogs, who began to howl as they felt the presence of death in that already sinister place.

And for more than obvious reasons, all the soldiers and security guards in the area had heard of Dr. Kazama's suicide and proceeded to approach the scene...

September 20th, AD 1943, Unit 731 Complex, Shiro Ishii's Personal Office, 8:00 AM

-"Are you sure of this, Major"-

-"Certainly, the last thing I want is to have a lunatic like Komatsu hanging around here. Not only is that idiot's work completely useless for us here, but because of him, one of my colleagues committed suicide."-

We see Major Shiro Ishii on the phone with one of his superiors on the phone regarding Yoshinori Komatsu and what to do with him after Masao Kazama's suicide two weeks ago. Although it was determined in the court-martial where he was tried two days later after Kazama's demise that Komatsu had absolutely nothing to do with his death, who was in a state of drunkenness at the time of his suicide, that tragic event was the last straw for Ishii with respect to that young scientist with very radical ideas for his time. Ishii never sympathized with Komatsu anyways, nor did Komatsu sympathize with him as well, and Kazama's suicide was the perfect excuse for him to get him out of Unit 731.

-"Wouldn't it be better to lock Komatsu in prison instead of sending him back to Japan? After all, he had enough problems in Germany, and he had them here in Manchukuo too."-

Ishii breathed deeply before giving an adequate answer to such a question. He, like almost all those who worked in the penal complex, would have wanted Komatsu executed and saved himself a lot of unnecessary inconvenience, but for various reasons, he could not do something like that, something surprising coming from him, a man willing to experiment on humans, and in other circumstances had no mercy for him.

-"Sir, believe me, I would have liked to have sent that sucker straight to the firing squad or the gallows if I had wished, but we can't afford to have a young scientist as brilliant as he to die here for something as trivial as a suicide. After all, we need as many men as we can, bearing in mind this war is becoming more intense each day. Apart from that, he did not technically commit any illegal acts against the army's provisions."-

-"Then, wouldn't it be more convenient if he stayed with you a little longer?"-

-"Technically yes, but no one wants Komatsu here in Manchukuo anymore, including me as well. Everybody wants him either to leave the place or dead. The fact that he works exclusively with animals is another cause of annoyance for everyone, since the presence of a veterinarian was never required at any time here. And to top it all off, it was General Oshima's idea in Germany to send this fool here in the first place. Had I known all the details about Komatsu's expulsion from Frankfurt six years ago, I would have refused to have him sent here to China."-

-"Well, well, well, I understand your discomfort with what has happened with Komatsu so far. We can't lock him in prison yet, since, leaving aside his eccentricities, the few times he worked with humans to date has shown him a more surprising ability to treat injuries than any field doctor I've ever met, according to the information you gave me and those received from Germany. Hell, I could even say that many western doctors would die to know his secrets."-

-"I agree with you, but the most convenient thing for him, and especially for us, is that Komatsu should work at home back in Japan, rather than working here. Aside from the fact that he will never again cause any more problems for anyone on the staff, I believe that his personal talents would be more exploited in some medical or research center, even if I personally believe that his theories have no scientific basis. All he needs is someone pulling a rope around his neck to guide him in a manner appropriate for the Empire."-

-"And what about his animals? Should we sacrifice them?"-

-"No, I don't think it would be necessary, apart from the fact that we would only make Komatsu antagonize with us, and it would only be to add fuel to the fire to this whole situation. Besides, it doesn't hurt us that he has his pets, as long as he can work at ease, even if I don't like his way of working so detached from the rest of us. I will pay the cost of shipping those specimens to Japan if necessary."-

-"I don't think that will be necessary, as I received a telegram from Komatsu that he would pay those expenses from his own pocket, for some reason. I must say, it's a nice gesture on his part. Maybe he doesn't want to cause any more trouble than he did with his presence, if I must say so myself."-

-"Indeed. "- Replied Ishii in a dry way.

-"And as for our man, is he on his way to Japan?"-

-"Yes. He took the plane to Tokyo this morning. Komatsu's animals will sail from Ryojun (better known as Port Arthur, now Lüshunkou) next week, arriving in Japan next month."-

-"And how was he when he left?"-

-"What can I say? In a way he was very sad about what happened with Kazama, but at the same time he was happy to leave. He never wanted to be here in the first place anyway, so it was to be expected that he would have that reaction."-

-"And with regard to Komatsu's work, do you intend to do anything about it?"-

-"No idea. I still think his theory is a continuous string of nonsense, so I'm going to send my copy of Komatsu's work to the incinerator. I hope that at least that young fool appreciates what we are doing for him, because if he does something else like this again in Japan..."-

-"You're quite right. It would be very convenient not to lose sight of him, and if necessary, have someone to guide his talents in something very productive for the homeland."-

-"Do you have anyone in mind for that job, sir?"-

-"Ehh, I don't really know. If I had to choose someone for that job, the only person I know who shares the same field of work is another zoologist named Yoshinori Imaizumi. Funny, now that I think about it, they both have even the same name, but I need to investigate it carefully with my contacts there in Japan. For now it would be just waiting for Komatsu to arrive to Tokyo and decide what to do with him."-

-"Right. I will await your call for any other matters you have in mind regarding him. I will see you later, sir."-

-"You too, I'll see you later, Ishii."-

September 20th, AD 1943, Over the Sea of Japan, 8:00 AM

The commercial airplane carrying Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu back to Japan flew over the sea without further trouble, while the rising sun of that day shone its lights over the aircraft.

Komatsu, on the other hand, was quite depressed to see how his luck had changed so suddenly, although he should be thankful that he was only expelled from Unit 731 and that he was not locked up in prison, or worse. At least he would return to Japan, at home, instead of continuing to work in such a gruesome place as that penal complex in Manchukuo.

He spent two nights in prison after Dr. Masao Kazama's suicide, before being tried in a court-martial to find some responsibility for his superior's death. Seeing that he had nothing to do with his death, including the fact that Kazama was drunk that day, and the fact that he tried almost to kill Komatsu in his lab, not to mention that he threatened him with his gun first, then used it to blow his brains out, the young Hiroshima scientist was found innocent and then released.

But it became more than evident that Komatsu's presence within the site was no longer welcomed by almost any of the Unit 731 staff members, including Shiro Ishii himself, who had no use for the work that Komatsu did there, leaving aside the fact that he emphatically refused to work with humans, apart from doing some medical treatment for prisoners as well as soldiers and local staff members.

But likewise, Komatsu was relieved to have to leave a place that, in the mouth of his now-defunct superior, regarded it as a hellhole, where human dignity ceased to exist, and man's lower instincts were released there.

"Stupid? Me? Right now I'm doing the most sane thing I've ever done in my whole life, something I should have done for many years since I set foot in this goddamn hellhole! And after reading your work, I think it's time to leave this world before I go on living in a world doomed to be destroyed anyway!"

Those were the last words from Masao Kazama's mouth before he took his own life with his own hands. Those words still echoed in the young scientist's head as a permanent reminder that there was something in his lifelong work that had disturbed not only him, but almost anyone else who had read his theory carefully, almost as if they had read the Necronomicon, the infamous book from the H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, a book that was said to have been written by a Arab madman named Abdul Alhazred and about which many legends hovered about that cursed book.

Certainly, Komatsu's theory had really revolutionary ideas for his time, but even Komatsu's theory had its limits, and by making that comparison with Lovecraft's fictional book, the young Japanese scientist could not help but wonder if he and Alhazred were not so different, something he quickly threw out of his head when he reached that far-fetched conclusion. It was one thing to create new life forms using existing biological bases, and another thing was invoking eldritch abominations.

-"My god, I wonder what the hell I'm doing. Am I writing something so twisted that anyone who reads it ends up insane?"-

And at that moment, Komatsu began to take a look at his thesis, hoping to find the answer to that doubt.

-"I don't think my theory is as insane as many people think, but the people who have read it consider it a threat to their interests, at least I do."-

But there was something Komatsu noticed when he began to think about Kazama's suicide: That man had no personal interests other than experimenting with human beings, at least as far as he knew about that doctor. And while he took into account in that day that man was in a state of drunkenness, what he said was not very different from what Dr. Von Verschuer, and to a lesser extent, Josef Mengele had said about what they knew about Komatsu's theory, but at least they were already crazier since the day he knew them.

But now, Komatsu had to think about what would happen with his life from now on, and decided to close the book with his theory for another day. Now, a new chapter of his life was opening before his eyes, a new chapter that would change him and everything around the young man forever.

END OF ACT V