[14], A prison break in the autumn of 1934, which jeopardized the facility's secrecy, and an explosion in 1935 (believed to be sabotage) led Ishii to shut down Zhongma Fortress. September 1937. Unit731 and the other units of the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department operated biological weapon production, testing, deployment, and storage facilities. [75][76][77] Vivisections were also conducted on native Filipinos in the Philippines. In addition, gas chambers were set up at unit facilities and test subjects exposed to nerve gas and blister agents. [11] They viewed the Chinese as no cost research subjects, and hoped that they could use this advantage to lead the world in biological warfare. From 1948 to 1958, less than five percent of the documents were transferred onto microfilm and stored in the US National Archives before they were shipped back to Japan.[118]. Date unspecified. The Japanese unit 731 experiments are a dark part of our history. He gave up the idea, left and locked the door, then later went on to his experimental work. [92] Former Unit731 Youth Corps member Yoshio Shinozuka testified that the windows in these prison doors were so small that it was difficult to see in. Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity", "Dissect them alive: order not to be disobeyed", "(RARE) Unit 731 surgeon Okawa Fukumatsu (interview footage)", "Interview with former Unit 731 member Nobuo Kamada", "Vivisectionist recalls his day of reckoning", "Unmasking Horror -- A special report. [20] In a further parallel, the corpses of "sacrificed" subjects were disposed of by incineration. Unit 731 is a biological warfare organ of the Imperial Japanese Army, which conducted horrific human experiments on prisoners of war and civilians in northeast China during WWII. I understand that other types of gasses were also tested there. One of the most heinous types of experiments conducted in Unit 731 was . From August1940 on, the units were known collectively as the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army" () or "Unit731" (731) for short. One group was clothed with Chinese underwear, no hat, and no mask and was subjected to as much as 1,800 field gun rounds of yperite gas over 25minutes. The unit is estimated to have killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people. One prisoner was a 21-year-old Chinese woman, the other a Soviet girl who was 19years of age. Additionally, Unit 731 produced biological weapons that were used in areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces, which included Chinese cities and towns, water sources, and fields. But then finally he stopped. Two hours later the temperature was 37.7 degrees, and three hours later the subject recovered. Millions of inhumane experiments occurred in this research center. However, he rejected victims' compensation claims on the grounds that they had already been settled by international peace treaties. [1], Some test subjects were selected to gather a wide cross-section of the population and included common criminals, captured bandits, anti-Japanese partisans, political prisoners, homeless and mentally disabled people, which included infants, men, the elderly and pregnant women, as well as those rounded up by the Kenpeitai military police for alleged "suspicious activities". [112] Critics argue that racism led to the double standard in the American postwar responses to the experiments conducted on different nationalities. The United States refused to acknowledge the trials, branding them communist propaganda. As the last witnesses to this history grow old and die, its possible that the matter will never be addressed again. Had difficulties opening the eyes. The hypothetical possibility of vertical transmission (from mother to child) of diseases, particularly syphilis, was the stated reason for the torture. The occupying US government undertook the cover-up of Japanese war crimes after the end of World War II, granting political immunity to military personnel who had engaged in human experimentation and other crimes against humanity, predominantly in mainland China. It operated covertly for ten years since 1935 in Harbin, China, and was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by Imperial Japan, due to its extensive use of lethal human experimentation. Ishii had wanted to use biological weapons in the Pacific War since May1944, but his attempts were repeatedly snubbed. Limbs removed were sometimes reattached to the opposite side of victims' bodies. Researchers found the most virulent strains of disease by infecting prisoners, usually by injecting them with "vaccines" or feeding them contaminated food, and killing those prisoners who recovered quickly from their illnesses. Testimony from multiple guards blames the female victims as being hosts of the diseases, even as they were forcibly infected. Unit 731 was housed within 150 buildings with a staff of 3,000. 1936-1945: Unit 731 the Asian Auschwitz was a massive biological warfare research program of the Japanese Imperial Army under the command of Lt. General Dr. Ishii Shiro in Pin Fang, Manchuria outside the city of Harbin. More than ten doctors and technicians were present. A report on the Japanese use of plague-infected fleas on Changde was made widely available the following year but was not addressed by the Allied Powers until Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a public warning in 1943 condemning the attacks. They also carried out biological wars by contaminating water and farmlands with disease-carrying germs. Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Xinhua via Getty ImagesJapanese personnel in protective suits carry a stretcher through Yiwu, China during Unit 731s germ warfare tests. [82] Author Seiichi Morimura estimates that almost 70 percent of the victims who died in the Pingfang camp were Chinese (both military and civilian),[83] while close to 30 percent of the victims were Russian. Unit 731 (731) led by Japanese microbiologist Shiro Ishii, was a covert biological warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook human experimentation mainly on Chinese, Koreans, and Russians, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and World War II. Other articles where Unit 731 is discussed: World War II: The horror of war in pictures: Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army carried out horrific medical experiments on thousands of prisoners of war and civilians; men and women were subjected to chemical and biological agents and vivisected to survey the results. Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and their esophagus reattached to the intestines. It is suspected that the children of female prisoners were killed after birth or aborted.[68]. [32] Yuasa said that when he performed vivisections on captives, they were "all for practice rather than for research", and that such practises were "routine" among Japanese doctors stationed in China during the war.[21]. Unit 731 was the creation of a brutal psychopath, Lieutenant-General Ishii Shiro. Estimates of those killed by Unit731 and its related programs range up to half a million people, and none of the inmates survived. At the time of his arrival in Japan, he had no knowledge of what Unit731 was. Four or five unit members, dressed in white laboratory clothing completely covering the body with only eyes and mouth visible, rest covered, handled the tests. A former member of the Special Team (who insisted on anonymity) recalled in 1995 his first vivisection conducted at the Unit: He didn't struggle when they led him into the room and tied him down. [107] Sanders took this information to General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers and responsible for rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupations. Unit 731, Japan's biological warfare program, was formed in 1932 under the leadership of the notorious Gen. Shiro Ishii, chief medical officer of the Japanese army. One one occasion, he demanded a human brain to experiment on, so guards grabbed a prisoner and held him down while one of them hacked. Unit 731, Japan's Horrific Human Experiments Program During World War II Unit 731 personnel conduct a bacteriological trial upon a test subject in Nong'an County of northeast China's Jilin Province. Presiding judge Koji Iwata ruled that Unit731, on the orders of the Imperial Japanese Army headquarters, used bacteriological weapons on Chinese civilians between 1940 and 1942, spreading diseases, including plague and typhoid, in the cities of Quzhou, Ningbo, and Changde. While Unit731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were tried at the December1949 Khabarovsk war crime trials, those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their human experiments. His perverted imagination was captured by the possibilities of biological and chemical warfare, and in the Japan of the 1920s and '30s, he found supporters in the increasingly nationalistic and fanatical military. In one case, at least half a liter of blood was drawn at two-to-three-day intervals.[54]. The truth is that Japan's Unit 731 committed some of the most heinous war crimes ever. 126134, Human Lab Rats: Japanese Atrocities, the Last Secret of World War II (Penthouse, May 2000). [3]:60,84,124,310, A medical school and research facility belonging to Unit731 operated in the Shinjuku District of Tokyo during World WarII. Since then, much more in depth testimony has been given in Japan. [86] No one could enter without special permits and an ID pass with a photograph, and the entry/exit times were recorded. None of the Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, or Russian captives assigned to Unit 731 survived their confinement. Injecting the blister fluid from one subject into another subject and analyses of blood and soil were also performed. Scientists in Unit 731 also experimented on their test subjects through pregnancy and rape. 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