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Unit 731- The Secret Japanese Military Testing Facility for Biological Warfare

6/2/2017

2 Comments

 
by Danielle Dybbro
Japanese biological warfare
The systematic medical experimentation of Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, and Allied prisoners during World War II was conducted by the Japanese military with the operation’s headquarters based in Harbin, Manchuria.
(continued) Unit 731, also known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department, was responsible for the deaths of at least 3000 people in the Manchurian headquarters from 1939-1945 and the experimentation of at least another 250,000. Prisoners were victims of such procedures such as live vivisection, frostbite, and disease experiments, all in the name of furthering Japanese medical, military, and biological warfare research.

Historians estimate that at least half a million people were killed as a direct or indirect result of the biological warfare field tests throughout China, which included airplanes dropping ceramic bombs filled with plague-infested fleas, anthrax contaminating water supplies, and lacing food with other infectious diseases. This biological warfare research was even considered as a tool to attack the United States: the military plan codenamed Cherry Blossoms at Night was in the works, which would have involved kamikaze pilots infesting California with the plague.

Unit 731 was just one of many Epidemic Prevention Departments, with at least 5 other permanent facilities in China, Japan, and Singapore, and at least 18 others throughout the Japanese Empire. However, In August 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies and Unit 731’s leader, General Shiro Ishii, ordered his more than 10,000 workers to bury the evidence by destroying the facilities, killing and burying the remaining prisoners, releasing all disease-infected animals, and taking their secrets to the grave.

The United States granted General Ishii and a number of other prominent Unit 731 workers immunity from war crime investigations in exchange for the medical research they accumulated from their experiments. The Soviet-U.S. rivalry was soon to turn into the Cold War, and the U.S. wanted to get ahead of the USSR in biological warfare research. The U.S. did not want the publicity of an international war crime trial, which would leak any of the secret and valuable research to the Soviets that the Japanese had accumulated at the high cost of hundreds of thousands of human lives. As a result of this war crime immunity, a number of Unit 731 officials were able to become prominent members of society, including professors at medical schools, the director of Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company, the president of Japan’s Medical Association, and the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee.

Former members of Unit 731, including medical assistants, nurses, and doctors, have come forward and admitted to following the orders to perform experiments on prisoners and to cover up the evidence at the end of the war. However, to this day, the Japanese government has not taken responsibility for the nearly 1 million deaths that Unit 731 and its biological warfare division is estimated to have caused. Neither have any lawsuits filed by Chinese families affected by Unit 731’s research been answered by the Japanese government. 
​
References
  1. 731: Two Versions of Hell. Film produced by James T. Hong. 2007.
  2. “Japan Unearths Site Linked to Human Experiments.” The Guardian. 21 February, 2011.
  3. “Japanese Veteran Admits Vivisection Tests on PoWs.” The Guardian. 27 November, 2006.
  4. “The Imperial Japanese Medical Atrocities and its Enduring Legacy in Japanese Research Ethics.” Abridged from chapter “The Imperial Japanese Experiments in China” in Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics, 2008.
  5. “Unmasking Horror -- A Special Report.; Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity.” The New York Times 17 Mar. 1995. 
  6. Unit731.org

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2 Comments
Mya link
12/29/2020 07:00:53 am

Thanks ggreat post

Reply
sara link
6/23/2022 01:01:00 am

great

Reply



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  • Home
    • About >
      • FAQ's - Frequently Asked Questions
    • Support Us >
      • Projects you can support! >
        • Distributing Books
        • Presenting at 112th Annual Meeting of Pacific Coast Branch
        • Summer Research Relocation Fund
    • Contact
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      • Black Hearts (2021)
    • Blog
    • Podcast: Forgotten History
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    • Fall 2020- Spring 2021 Internship
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    • Summer 2019 Internship >
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    • Summer 2017 Internship >
      • 2017 Summer Showcase & Fundraiser
  • Books
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  • Resource Page
    • Supplementary Research Guides >
      • Unit 731 - Guide >
        • Background of Biochemical Warfare Development
        • Imperial Japan's Chemical Warfare Development Program
        • Map of Unit 731
        • Personnel of Unit 731
        • Duties of Unit 731
        • Human Experimentation
        • [GRAPHIC] Germ Warfare Attacks
        • Cover Ups After the War
        • [OLD] Cover Ups After the War
      • Philippines' Resistance - Guide >
        • Philippines World War II Timeline
        • The Japanese Invasion & Conquest of the Philippines
        • Bataan Death March
        • Formation of Underground Philippines Resistance
        • Supplies of the Guerrilla Fighters
        • The Hukbalahap
        • Hunter's ROTC
        • Marking's Guerrillas
        • United States Army Forces in the Philippines of Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL)
        • The Aetas
        • Chinese and Filipino-Chinese Nationalist Guerrilla Units
        • The Female Faces of the Philippine Guerrillas
      • Rising Sun Flag - Guide >
        • History of the Rising Sun Flag
        • Atrocities Committed Under the Flag
        • Rising Sun Flag in Pop Culture
      • Pinay Guerrilleras - Guide >
        • Japanese Occupation of the Philippine Islands: Pinays Answering the Call to Arms
        • The Fierce Heneralas and Kumanders of the Hukbalahap Guerrillas
        • Amazons of the Pacific Theater
        • Filipina American Veterans: Recovering the Extraordinary Feats of the Ordinary Pinays
        • The Legacy of the Asian Women Soldier
      • Fall of Singapore - Guide >
        • Singapore World War II Timeline
        • History of World War II in the Pacific
        • History of Singapore
        • Japan's Conquest in Asia
        • Japan's Invasion of the Malay Peninsula
        • Sook Ching Massacre
        • Double Tenth Incident
        • Social Changes and Challenges in Singapore
        • Voices from Syonan
        • Return to British Rule
      • Three Years and Eight Months - Guide >
        • Hong Kong before WW2
        • Buildup to World War 2
        • The Battle of Hong Kong
        • Life during 3 Years and 8 Months
        • East River Column Guerrilla Fighters
        • Prisoners of War Camps
        • End of Japanese Occupation
        • War Crimes Trials
      • Siamese Sovereignty - Guide >
        • The Land of Smiles
        • The Thai-Japanese Relationship
        • Phibun’s Domestic and International Policies
        • The Free Thai Resistance Movement
        • Post WW2 Aftermath of Thailand
      • The Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial - Guide >
        • Defendants of Khabarovsk War Crime
        • The Japanese Empire and USSR in WW2
        • The Employment of the Bacteriological Weapon in the War
        • Planning of Japan invasion to USSR
      • Unit 731 Cover-up : The Operation Paperclip of the East - Guide >
        • Establishing Manchukuo
        • The Development of Unit 731
        • Plan Kantokuen and Bacteriological Warfare
        • The Downfall of the Japanese WW2 Era
        • Three Stages of Interrogations
        • Lasting Impacts
      • Marutas of Unit 731 - Guide >
        • How did Ishii Shiro start unit 731?
        • A Beta Testing Site
        • Establishing Pingfan
        • Experiences at the Human Experimentation Complex
        • Vivisection at the Unit 731
        • Anta Testing Grounds
        • Overall Advance from the Laboratory Creations
        • The End of the War
      • Prince Konoe Memoir - Guide >
        • Who is Prince Konoe?
        • Preparation to Tripartite Pact
        • Emperor Hirohito and Prince Konoe
        • The End of Prince Konoe
      • Competing Empires in Burma - Guide >
        • What was the China-Burma-India Theater?
        • When did the China-Burma-India Theater Happen?
        • Who Fought in the China-Burma-India Theater?
        • The Second Sino Japanese War
        • Japan in the South
        • Operation U-Go
      • Battle of Shanghai - Guide >
        • The Battle of Shanghai. Background
        • Shanghai Before War
        • The First Battle of Shanghai 1932
        • Battle of Shanghai 1937
        • Aftermath of Battle for Shanghai
      • Ishi Shiro - Guide >
        • History of Biological Weapons and The Young Ishii Shiro
        • Establishment in Manchuria
        • Pingfang District - Harbin
        • Failures and Corruption
        • Post War
      • Taiwan The Israel of the East - Guide >
        • Background of Formosa
        • Industrialization of Japan
        • China During WWII
        • Taiwan under Kuomintang
        • New Taiwanese National Identity
      • Seeking Justice for Biological Warfare Victims of Unit 731 - Guide >
        • Introduction of Wang Xuan
        • Colonel Memorandum
        • The Beginning of Biological Warfare
        • The Bacteriological Warfare on China
        • Victims in Zhejiang’s Testimonies
        • After the War
      • Rice and Revolution - Guide >
        • The French Colonial Period
        • Anti-Colonial Resistance
        • The Rise of the Communist Movement
        • Imperial Japan’s Entry into Indochina
        • The Portents of Famine
        • The Famine (1944-45)
        • Legacy of the 1944-45 Vietnam Famine
      • Clash of Empires - Guide >
        • Japan’s Imperialist Origins
        • Japan’s Competition against the West: Nanshin-ron and Hokushin-ron
        • Japanese Imperialism Through the Lens of French Indochina
        • The U.S.-Japan Relations and the Pearl Harbor Attack
    • Lesson Plans >
      • Reparations
      • Ethics in Science
      • Writing the Narrative of a Pinay Fighter
      • Privilege Journal
      • Environmental Injustices
      • Female Guerrillas
      • Hunter's ROTC
      • Scientific Advancements
      • Seeking Justice: A Humanities Lesson Plan
      • The Hukbalahap
      • Trading Immunity
      • Bataan Death March
      • Biochemical Warfare Development
Contribute