A place where everything reminds of death

However, Zhang Li suddenly stunned me by offering a completely different program for the upcoming weekend, and I had to agree with him. He offered to go first to Harbin and then to Pingfang. Tickets had to be obtained with great difficulty. On holidays, the whole of China moves from its place and migrates within the country, visiting relatives and relatives. Where we went, no one was waiting for us. We drove to Harbin. Some of my mother's relatives lived three hours from Harbin, in Mudanjiang, but our route was a little different. We had to go to Pingfang.
The trip went pretty well. I even got some sleep. However, in the morning, when I went out to the too busy station square, I felt that I was cold. It was much colder here than in Beijing. And I immediately wanted to go home. However, remembering that no one was waiting for me at home, and now I don’t have a home, I gathered my will into a fist and smiled at my companion. Good thing I brought a warm jacket with me. It would be possible to immediately move to Pingfang, since the town was not very far from Harbin, but Zhang Li decided differently. Taking a taxi, Zhang Li told the driver to go to the hotel. However, the relationship that arose between us began to disturb me. I disliked more and more that Zhang Li was taking the reins of my life into his own hands. I tried to protest, but Lee assured me there was plenty of time. It is enough for both leisure and business. Not immediately, but in the end, I still agreed with his arguments. The hotel was located next to the Songhua River, around which everything and everyone in this city revolved. It seemed to me that Lee knew the city quite well, although he denied it. There were many Russians in the city. Funny white-skinned people came across at every turn. They bought everything in a row and clicked their cameras endlessly. Glancing at Zhang Li, I noted with pride that he was as tall as a Russian, not to mention the color of his hair. After noticing this fact, I suddenly thought, I was struck by the thought that I have known Lee for so long, but his hair does not change. They are not even light, but closer to yellow-orange. If they are dyed, then sooner or later darker hair roots should appear. However, I have never seen this. I wanted to ask Zhang Li for the name of the hair dye, but something distracted me and I forgot to ask about it.
The central street was colloquially called "Arbat". Zhang Li said that there is a street with that name in Moscow. I didn't believe him. Why did it happen? Why does a Chinese city need such a strange street name? But, having wandered and traveled around the city, I found out that a lot of the past remained here. After all, earlier Harbin was a Russian city and the laboratories in Pingfan were replenished not only with Chinese, Korean, but also Russian prisoners. We spent exactly one day in this city. The 343rd bus ran from the railway station to Pingfang. We drove unexpectedly long, because the way from Harbin to Pingfang takes almost ten kilometers. At the penultimate stop, the conductor showed us a mourning memorial through the window. When I got to Pingfan, the first thing I did was to ask the locals about Laboratory No. 9.
I was interested in its location. But, to my surprise, no one had heard of the existence of a laboratory with that number. There were still quite a few people in the town who remembered that terrible time. Although many years have passed. Someone gladly shared memories, while someone got angry or left silently, not wanting to stir up old wounds. Desperate to achieve at least some result, I turned to Zhang Li. All this time he tried not to interfere with my research, recognizing that this matter concerns me first of all. My friend accompanied me, but silently. When I confessed to him that my investigations had come to a standstill, he offered to walk around the memorial. We went to the main administration building. More than half a century ago, executioners in white coats worked here, guards were stationed. And now, in the main "block" there was a museum exposition. At the entrance, I saw that both walls were lined with metal embossing. Hands in shackles and with clenched fists stretched straight out of the walls towards the visitors.
After the USSR entered the war in the Far East, the Japanese command decided to cover up the traces of crimes. On August 8, 1945, all objects on the territory of the detachment were hastily blown up: a prison, crematoria, barracks, laboratories in which inhuman experiments were carried out on people using pathogenic bacteria. And yet, the stone walls of the “refrigerator” survived: On the parade ground in front of it, prisoners were tied to poles in winter and poured with water, checking how long the body can withstand. Prisoners were killed in vacuum chambers, tortured with electric shocks, limbs were amputated, deprived of water, and the test subjects died of thirst. Concrete cells about a meter deep, which contained mice, rats, ground squirrels and other living creatures, were also preserved - they were infected with infectious bacteria, then to be released into enemy territory.
In 1978, a museum was established on the territory of Pingfan. Its exposition is located in the former headquarters building of Detachment 731.At first, the museum had only seven hundred or eight hundred visitors a year. But recently there has been a surge - the memorial is visited by about eleven thousand people annually, and there are a lot of Japanese tourists. Among the Japanese who visited Detachment 731 were those who worked here in 1939-45. At that time, the Sonderkommando was not tormented by doubts; there was even a basketball court in front of the main building, where you could warm up after a hard day's work. Sobering up came over the years, after the defeat of Japan in World War II. I moved closer to the booth that interested me. The photo was of Naokata Itsibashi, a former member of the "special forces" of "Detachment 731". He visited Pingfan in 1987 and left penitential lines in the visitor's book. I peered at another photo: the former vivisector Hideo Sonoda atones for his sins on the ruins of the barracks. Another "reforged" is the former guard Yutaka Mio. After the war, he renounced his pension as a sign of repentance for his involvement in a crime against humanity.
The exposition of the museum was interrupted in 1945, when Detachment 731 ceased to exist. The exhibition featured photocopies of documents about the post-war fate of General Ishii and other fanatics. It follows from the content of these materials that the Americans took a liking to them, and they ended up in the United States, where they contributed to the military bacteriological research of the Pentagon. In one of the halls one could see a bacteriological bomb made in the USA. According to some reports, the American army used such bombs at first during the Korean War of 1950-53.
True, some of Ishii's accomplices did not escape punishment. Among them is Tomio Isawa. In 1949, he appeared in Khabarovsk before the trial of Japanese war criminals, but before the end of the trial, he committed suicide in his cell.
When I listened to mother Shi, I felt bad, but the reality turned out to be worse than her memories. There was a medical center on the territory of the memorial. It was created specifically for people like me who have been shaken by the past. At first, the chills began, nausea rolled up to the throat. Zhang Li gave me his jacket, but I couldn't get warm. Then the blood rushed to his face.
And then came the horror. I have regained my childhood ability to hear what others do not hear. I heard commands given in the same language as the little girl in my first childhood nightmare. What I took for a hard to understand dialect was just another language. Probably Japanese. Orders, groans, prayers, the sounds of water flowing and freezing right in the air, the sound of a saw cutting through a still living body, the squeak of rats and mice, which were injected with plague and cholera mixed with human blood. At some point, I probably entered the body of a person experiencing inhuman torment and started screaming, because Zhang Li picked me up and carried me in the direction of a white building with a red cross.
People parted in front of us and tried to somehow help, but I don’t remember all this. My consciousness blacked out the moment the chills gave way to fever. As Zhang Li told me, they injected me with a sedative medicine. After a while, the delirium stopped, and I calmly fell asleep. The hospital had a ten-bed isolation ward. The doctor advised to leave me there. After hesitating, Zhang Li agreed. My condition could worsen, and it was better for me to be under the supervision of medical staff. Zhang Li himself settled in a hotel, which was not far from the memorial. Zhang Li visited me in the morning. And when the doctor delighted him, saying that my condition had stabilized, my fianc; decided that he needed to return home as soon as possible. As they say, stay away from sin. However, the doctor advised him against this, explaining that I was still very weak and might not be able to endure such a long journey. The only concession was that the doctor allowed me to be transferred to a hotel room. Although it was a few steps to the hotel, Zhang Li caught a taxi. The doctor offered to carry me on a stretcher, but Zhang Li refused. The room was warm and cozy. Zhang Li tried to make me, at least for a while, forget about the fragments of the past that stood in the way of anyone who visits this town.
There were flowers in vases, fruits in baskets, and candies in boxes. The television played silently, throwing a bluish glow over the closed curtains. I sincerely rejoiced at what surrounded me, but from time to time I quietly took a breath to get rid of the smell of rot, human feces and formalin. Thanks to the treatment, I stopped hearing sounds, but I had nowhere to go from the smells. The day flew by unnoticed. On several occasions, Lee left the room to fetch food ordered from a nearby restaurant. I had no appetite at all, but I diligently picked at my plate so as not to upset Lee. But the main delicacy in this room was the TV. I was lying when I said that we didn’t have a computer because we lived in a hutong. Of course, this was one of the main reasons, but with a strong desire, this reason could be bypassed. That was not the point. We didn't have any app at home.paratures. None at all. We didn't even have electrical outlets. We cooked the old fashioned way. The only indulgence that grandfather allowed was the fact that they had a light. Therefore, you can imagine how offended I was when my school friends shared their impressions of the cartoon they watched, and later, when we grew up, they retold the plot of adventure or love films, and I could not participate in these discussions. I went with my parents to cinemas, to the circus, to the Chinese opera. Later, in college and university, I became thoroughly acquainted with the computer, but the TV has always remained that sweet, forbidden fruit.
I fell asleep in a beautiful warm room. Zhang rented an adjacent room for himself, but I was not afraid, Zhang's bed was across the wall from mine. As soon as I hit the wall, my faithful friend would immediately come to me. But I hoped that such emergency measures would not be needed and the night would pass peacefully. As I already said, I fell asleep in a comfortable room, and woke up in the operating room, laboratory No. 9.

I knew for sure that I was in laboratory number 9, although no one told me about it. This is what happens in dreams. I was not afraid, but I knew that this dream was very important for me and tried my best to persuade myself to remember everything to the smallest detail. A high-pitched male voice rang out. The translator in my head immediately synchronously made a translation
What to do with a man and a woman?
“Issia didn’t order them to be punished,” someone with a lower voice answered, “just put them in different numbers.
What if they try to run away again?
“Report to Ishii, that’s all. Wait, - a man with a deep voice, whom I will call Low for simplicity, called out to Tall as he was about to leave, - did you forget to prepare the operating room?
Everything was ready half an hour ago.
“Then in an hour,” Low checked his watch, “in an hour and a half the youngest of the captives should be ready. Provide silence. Today will be operated by Himself.
— Injections to prepare?
- No injections, the operated person must be in full memory.
- That is, if I understand correctly, the prisoner will not be given anesthesia before the operation?
“You understood correctly, now go and prepare the youngest of the nine.
- I'm listening.
As I moved, I felt that I could go wherever I wanted. Realizing this, I immediately gave myself an order:
“I want to see grandma and grandpa!”
Immediately, inside myself, I heard a click and realized that I had already been transported from the cold depths of the operating room. I recognized the voices of my grandparents right away, but I couldn’t see how I didn’t tense up.
“Do you think they already know about the baby?” A soft whisper was heard. It was my grandmother's voice
“No, if you didn’t tell them about it,” my heart sank at the sound of that voice.
“But a more complete examination is scheduled for tomorrow, and I’m afraid…”
“There is no need to be afraid, my life,” grandfather said affectionately, “what will be, will be.” And you don't have to beat yourself up!
Have you seen the seal of the emperor? Grandmother asked even more quietly.
"Don't you remember anything?" Sorry my plum blossom! When the seal of the emperor was torn in two, you passed out from the pain, and there was nothing I could do to help you! These executioners held my hands and did not let me get closer!
- My God! I remember nothing! What will happen now?
Suddenly a bright light hit my eyes and I screamed. My grandmother's scream echoed behind me. She asked not to separate her from her husband.
However, the dream did not want to let me go yet. The action has changed. Now I saw everything but heard nothing.
In the detachment, along with the prison where the "logs" were kept, there were also "rooms of horror", the entrance to which was forbidden to everyone except a small number of persons. I've read about it, but of course I haven't seen it. And now, in my dream, a silent movie unfolded in front of me. The film unrolled and unrolled. I covered my eyes with hands that I didn't have in my dream, I pinched my body that I didn't have either, I even tried to scream. However, everything was useless. I should have seen it. My stern, invisible teacher gave me no relief.
So, the "exhibition room", although it was called a room, was equal in size to the area of ;;;;three rooms. The one who, having passed along the corridor from the economic department, reached the "exhibition room", first of all, the sharp smell of formalin struck his nose, then a sudden nervous shock made the person close his eyes.
The one who first entered this room fell into a state of shock, and even worldly-wise people, staggering, looked for support. I had nowhere to sit, I was incorporeal, but the scream, torn from within, shook my whole invisible body.
Glass vessels filled with formalin, 45 cm in diameter and 60 cm high, stood on shelves arranged in two or three rows along the walls. The formalin solution contained human heads. Separated from the neck, with open or closed eyes, with swaying hair, they swayed quietly in a glass vessel.
Heads with a crushed face, like a pomegranate fruit.
Heads cut into two parts from crown to ear.
Sawed heads with exposed brains.
Heads with a decomposed face, on which there is nono eyes, no nose, no mouth can be recognized.
Heads with a wide open mouth, with red, blue, black spots on the skin.
The heads of people of different races, men and women, old and young, looked out of the brownish formalin solution at the person who entered the room and turned to him with a mute question: “Why are we here?”
There were more than just heads in the "exhibition room". Human legs cut off at the thigh, torsos without heads and limbs, stomachs and intestines fancifully intertwined in solution, wombs, some with fetuses. In short, it was an exhibition of all the constituent parts of the human body.
Some of them were absolutely incredible. For example, a human arm, cut off at the elbow. The owner of this hand was an employee of the detachment. Once a month he came to the "exhibition room", stopped in front of his hand and looked at it for a long time. Even now, after death, he was still here. He stood next to me and looked at his hand in bewilderment. Looking around, I saw that the exhibition hall was slowly filling up with people. We stood against each other, they, those who were not in number, and I - completely alone. More than one millennium flashed past the windows, and we all stood against each other. One of the women-ghosts approached the aquarium with the solution, where the severed uterus with the fetus lay. Lovingly stroking the smooth surface of the aquarium, she turned and looked at me. And at that time I could not take my eyes off the aquarium, because the uterus began to pulsate and stretch. She tried to expel the fetus from herself. And then I broke down and screamed.
Zhang Li stood next to my bed and tried to calm me down. I couldn’t explain anything to him, I just repeated “Grandfather, grandmother!”, “These people. Get these people away from me,” and cried. We left Pingfan only the next day. I was already much better, but Zhang Li did not think so, and therefore we returned to Beijing by plane.
http://proza.ru/2014/07/28/238