February 12, 2025

HPR4313: Why I made a 1-episode podcast about a war story

18 minutes

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

My setup for recording this podcast about podcasting.

I never was attached to history (I’m a

shame with events, names, dates ), much less of history

fictionalized, like historical romances. But I

ended up working on a piece of it. The event passes between 1931

and 1945. It relates to WWII — it’s part of it.

So , I talk about producing an specific

audiod rama, covering two points, that are at really three:

WHAT is the story: the chaos that came to me asking to come

out; and

WHY I decided to present it (and HOW:) by a podcast of

fiction with history.

In the end , I summarize that I got touched

by the subject, it impacted me with disastrous images both in

words and images. And I like audio, well-made audio content. In

synthesis, the real story touched me and urged the crave of

creating something from it, resulting in an audio drama. A minute

of it translated on the end.

Full Shownotes

Why I made a 1-episode podcast about a war story

by Sem Luz em Saint Louis

A little citizen (that came from) outside the country, inside

a prison. Not a common prison, though: it is Unit 731…’

“What is Unit 731? What are you bringing to Hacker Public

Radio?” The impulse and reason for creating an audiodrama,

dear listener. I will tell you What and Why:

- WHAT is the story: the chaos that came to me asking to come

out; and

- WHY I decided to present it by a podcast of fiction with

history

[WHAT]

First, the WHAT. In the wanderings of the World Wide Web, a

notable event was revealed before my eyes, a war scene that was

under dust for decades, but people, even participants of it in

varied degrees, came to reveal the fact; so, today, we know it.

China and Japan engaged in war by the year 1931. More exactly,

that is when Japan started colonizing China by the provinces

of Manchuria, northeastern of the country.

The resistence started in 1937, with reaction by the Chinese

troops. Japan was so much more powerful, though (and that’s why

China took so long to decide fighting the Imperial Army of Japan).

It took time, and without the best outcome, but it demanded

courage, it showed force, and humanity, moral value. And this

conflict is part of the second World War, that

by one side had Japan, Italy

and Germany (the German Reich), heading the Axis

powers; who were fought against by the Allied powers,

headed by the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, United States

and China.

Even with basically all the rest of the world against the Axis,

the Japanese occupied the 3 provinces of Manchuria from 1932 until

the end of the war, in September 2, 1945, making of it the main

territorial base for development of weapons. The Encyclopedia

Britannica explains us the following, quote:

On March 9, 1932, the Japanese created the puppet state

of Manchukuo […] out of the three historical Manchurian

provinces. The last Qing (Manchu) emperor, Puyi, was brought

to Manchuria from his retirement in Tianjin and made “chief

executive,” and later emperor, of the new state. The Manchukuo

government, though nominally in Chinese hands, was in fact rigidly

controlled and supervised by the Japanese, who proceeded to

transform Manchuria into an industrial and military base for

Japan’s expansion into Asia. The Japanese took over the

direction, financing, and development of all the important

Manchurian industries, with the fortunate result that by the end

of World War II Manchuria was the most industrialized

region in China. [Source: BRITANNICA. Manchuria. Last

updated in January 31, 2025. Link:

. Acess in

February 2025.]

Unquote.

Now, very briefly, we come to the Unit 731. It was a big Japanese

construction first officially designated as a “Epidemic Prevention

and Water Supply Department”. It was commanded by the

tenant-general of the Army and microbiologist Shirō Ishii.

I wanted until now to say what is the theme before hopping to the

motivation to do something about the knowledge. Let’s get to the WHY:

I came to know of the theme by chance, navigating the web and

suddenly coming to a strange photo of human experiencing, the

description of Unit 731. I searched more about it and was simply

astonished to know it happened, and inflicted by the so-estimated

Japan, a headquarter of technology and populated by reverent

people. We are (that is, I am) often so biased,

for the good or the bad.

That is, what the general public know about World War II,

including me? The holocaust of the Jews. This is much, but more

happened, and more can be known for our critical view of the

World, the countries and its interests, and the rational thinking

that might be better with this knowledge.

The Unit 731 was not the only one with deadly human

experimentation, other facilities existed, but 731 came to be

better known; first, it was hidden, but now, decades after the

events, documents and confessions came to the ground and can’t be

denied anymore. And in other sites, Shirō Ishii was already

inflicting them probably since the fall of 1933, mainly Chinese

people, but also Soviets, Mongolians and Koreans, men, women and

children.

That’s basically it. The research I made (and the movie I saw, a

fiction, based on it, horrendous) led me to dream about the theme,

so I felt to throw it, what was developed and developing inside,

in some manner. I like the voice, the radio, and it is accessible

to do, not requiring many equipments etc., so my first choice was

to tell it. How? At first, I

hypothetized about proposing a script to some Brazilian podcast

that tell stories. Soon I realized it could not fit so well in the

lines of the ones I know. Some days after, the idea of a little

fictionalized story, short story, came as a thing I like, and also

with the advantages of: 1. being beautiful (men is made of

stories, real or otherwise appropriated by the mind and senses);

2. being impactful (connection with characters); 3. being fast in

the way I proposed it to be (one little episode). Not necessarily

only this or in this order, but the idea was that.

One thing more, of course: as any interested in the subject can

note, there is so many technical things produced about it, I

wanted to do something that caught the emotions and interest of

people, spreading the possibility of them knowing what, elsewhere,

they wouldn’t come to see. I wanted to make it different in that

sense, but as true to the facts as a little audio fiction can be.

It’s History to our minds, for our own construction and of our

world view. But, if not, if the listener just come for the art, it

can be (I hope) an enjoying story after all. That was the WHY I

decided to do something with the knowledge (in an expression, fire

in my heart), and HOW it became a fiction podcast (to do

something I like, and different about the subject, attractive).

That was my theme here for our moment in HPR! The motivation

behind need to create. It was hard, I get moved easily

with shocking scenes in words or images, but It catched me.

Deciding how to “let go” and then producing it was not tranquil,

also; the hands-on, the technical part, was as

follows:

I have written some pages summarizing the events I have outlined

here. Having the base, I came with a story in my mind and in two

days or three I think I wrote it, in 3 and a half pages, the story

that you’re going to listen. In a more silent night I went to my

room, with my notebook and a USB condenser microphone, and

recorded. Fast. The editing, cutting, compressing, normalizing,

and choosing free sounds (all referenced in description) and

fitting them in the story, took a long and time and patience,

maybe 10 or more dedicated hours along days. I’m not very

efficient, some of it was the necessary lack of hurry of art, but

some was my slowness in getting to the technical part of what I

wanted to do (this bit of information in this milisecond, move

track 3 together with track 4 without affecting the sync of the

other tracks and clips in the same track, cut the music at this

point but with a gentle fade…). I used Audacity. I had a

Reaper licence (I remember being a bit more efficient with it) but

lost it after formatting without having the serial number anymore,

so I went with my long-choice of the free and open source

alternative.

That was my work for the audiodrama podcast in my language.

Which, in between the days I have been preparing this presentation

script for HPR, I have released. You may find it in the

description, or searching in your podcast app for the name (in

Portuguese): “O Departamento de Prevenção de Epidemias e

Distribuição de Água”, under the author name “Sem Luz em Saint

Louis”.

I don’t know if it will be released in English. However, I made a

first minute of it, here and now, so you can enjoy having

mind of what I was talking about. Thank you, be with 1 minute of

the report of the survivor…

and

Bye!

[1 MINUTE OF THE AUDIODRAMA – EXCERPT ONLY]

The Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department

This account was found in the records of Parkinson Tribly

(or Tribly), of Russian and Polish origins. He was

recruited by Dr. Shirō Ishii for experiments at Unit 731: a

legitimate opportunity to stay alive — which ultimately proved

false for reasons he did not expect.

What we will hear now is his writing, unedited. Except that, for

organization, we will name the three parts that he composed as

follows: 1. Introduction; 2. Activities; 3. The Bargain. The

author reflects and advances in his organization, but what he

brings is:

INTRODUCTION

Thank God we know that, from the beginning, man has lived in war.

It’s envy, a desire for power, a desire for money. It is never a

good motivation, but purely selfishness. I arrived at the

department a week ago and, although I have no desire to

collaborate with what happens here, I know enough to realize that

it is impossible to leave this place free.

When the Japanese invaded this region, Manchuria, in the long war

against China, we did not expect the brutality that was witnessed.

A few years ago, after the end of the Great War, several countries

signed the Geneva Protocol. Although it only prohibits the use of

chemical weapons, biological agents, asphyxiating, and related

specificities, we believed it would mean more — that it would

signify a general humanization of combat methods on land, sea, and

air when there might be another Great War. I did not expect it to

come in my lifetime nor to be captured to participate in it

firsthand.

[END OF EXCERPT]

Thank you for your presence.

References:

The audiodrama podcast, in Brazilian Portuguese:

SEM LUZ EM SAINT LOUIS. O Departamento de Prevenção de

Epidemias e Distribuição de Água. In your favorite podcast

listener or at https://archive.org/details/731-podcast-audiodrama.

Credits of audios used, in order of appearance (

listenance ):

Ant.Survila / ccmixter – Nostalgic Reflections

MeijstroAudio / Freesounds – Dark Metal Rise 001

SamRam21 / Freesounds – KeysMouse

Sadiquecat / Freesounds – MBA desk with mouse

trimono / Freesounds – approving hm

[On the drama excerpt:]

Kulakovka / Pixabay – Lost in Dreams (abstract chill downtempo

cinematic future beats).

Title of the beginning of the audiodrama preview (“The Epidemic

Prevention and Water Supply Department”) made in https://luvvoice.com , Abeo (Male) voice.

BBC Sound Effects – Aircraft: Beaufighters - Take off (Bristol

Beaufighter, World War II).

Rewob / ccmixter – Secret Sauce (Secret Mixter)

References:

BRITANNICA. Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Last updated

in December 16, 2024. Link: <https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Sino-Japanese-War>.

Access in January 2025.

BRITANNICA. Manchuria. Last updated in January 31, 2025.

Link: <https://www.britannica.com/place/Manchuria>.

Access in February 2025.

LIANG, Jiashuo. A History of Japan’s Unit 731 and Implications

for Modern Biological Warfare. Advances in Social Science,

Education and Humanities Research , v. 673. Atlantis Press,

2022. [ A 5-pages article about Unit 731. If you were

interested with the facts told, the text gives a synthesys of

what happened between 1937 and 1945. ]

PBS. The Living Weapon : Shiro Ishii. Link:

Access in January 2025.

RIDER, Dwight R. Japan’s Biological and Chemical Weapons

Programs ; War Crimes and Atrocities – Who’s Who, What’s

What, Where’s Where. 1928 – 1945. 3. ed. 2018. [ “In Process”

version ]

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