Sheldon H Harris

A few months after Japan surrendered in World War II, an elaborate funeral was held in a village outside Tokyo to mark the death of a wealthy general who had supervised gruesome human experiments as part of the Japanese Army's germ warfare program. But Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii wasn't dead, according to a new book by retired Cal State Northridge history professor Sheldon H. Harris.

Sheldon H. Harris, a Cal State Northridge historian whose groundbreaking work helped establish that Japan conducted biological warfare experiments on Chinese civilians and military prisoners during World War II, has died. He was 74. Harris died of a blood infection Aug. 31 at UCLA Medical Center, but lived long enough to experience a moment of particular gratification, his son, David, said.

Sheldon H. Harris, a Cal State Northridge historian whose groundbreaking work helped establish that Japan conducted biological warfare experiments on Chinese civilians and military prisoners during World War II, has died. He was 74. Harris died of a blood infection Aug. 31 at UCLA Medical Center, but lived long enough to experience a moment of particular gratification, his son, David, said.

A few months after Japan surrendered in World War II, an elaborate funeral was held in a village outside Tokyo to mark the death of a wealthy general who had supervised gruesome human experiments as part of the Japanese Army's germ warfare program. But Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii wasn't dead, according to a new book by retired Cal State Northridge history professor Sheldon H. Harris.

Terms of a $500,000 endowment for a history professorship at California State University, Northridge have been agreed upon by the university and the donor, the W. P. Whitsett Foundation, the university announced Tuesday. The agreement appeared to resolve a dispute within the CSUN history department over several conditions in the foundation's original proposal, which some history professors said infringed on academic freedom.

In "Terrorists' Use of Hazardous Materials Seen" (Sept. 25) John Conley of National Tank Truck Carriers states, "Security measures in the industry have focused much more on keeping hazardous material inside the trucks, rather than keeping terrorists out." We now know that these terrorists have been in this country for several years as moles. They are ready to strike our schools, shopping centers, commercial buildings, entertainment centers. If terrorists are in position, then they are "in the trucks" already.

Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba traveled to China this week in a high-level response to the recent poisoning of dozens of Chinese by mustard gas left behind by the Japanese army after World War II. How sharply that visit contrasts with Japan's refusal to own up to its germ warfare experiments on Chinese civilians more than half a century ago.

Researchers who have been investigating Japan's germ warfare experiments on Chinese civilians during World War II visited Los Angeles on Monday to urge the U.S. to release documents that they say would shed light on that chapter in history. Survivors of those experiments have endured six decades of suffering that continues today, said Ignatius Ding, a spokesman for the Alliance to Preserve the History of WWII. "It's real, it's ongoing," he said. Ding's group is hosting a tour of six U.S.

A heart-wrenching exhibition, scrutinizing atrocities committed against tens of millions of Chinese and other Asians by the Japanese military before and during World War II, has opened at the Weingart Gallery at Occidental College. The Los Angeles showing of the "Forgotten Holocaust" seeks to refute decades of Japan's denial, followed by distortion, about its aggression in Asia.

A heart-wrenching exhibition, scrutinizing atrocities committed against tens of millions of Chinese and other Asians by the Japanese military before and during World War II, opens today at the Weingart Gallery at Occidental College. The Los Angeles showing of the "Forgotten Holocaust" seeks to refute decades of Japan's denial, followed by distortion, about its aggression in Asia.

Once again, Japan is at war over history. This time, the flash point is California author Iris Chang. The Japanese edition of her best-selling "The Rape of Nanking" was scrapped late last month after a long-running dispute between Chang and her Japanese publisher, and the controversy has cast a spotlight on this country's ambivalence about its wartime past.

A few months after Japan surrendered in World War II, a funeral was held in a village outside Tokyo marking the death of a wealthy general who had supervised gruesome human experiments as part of the Japanese army's germ-warfare program. But Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii wasn't dead. The funeral--complete with mourners, priests and burnt incense--was a ruse aimed at throwing American war-crimes investigators off his trail.