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Photographs with "731"

In May 2013, Abe posed for photographs giving thumbs up gestures while sitting in the cockpit of a Kawasaki T-4 military training aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force 's Blue Impulse aerobatics team. The aircraft was numbered "731", which was the number of the infamous Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 that conducted lethal chemical and biological experiments on live prisoners of war during World War II. South Korean politician Chung Mong-joon described Abe's actions as "an act of direct provocation to Korea, China and other victim nations". In response, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said that the numbering on the jet was coincidental and that the numbers were the pilot's individual ID number.