Post-War

Destroying of Unit 731

The end of the war came as a surprise to everyone at Ishii’s Network. Unlike the United States which took its time to occupy Japan, the Soviet Union had rushed into Manchuria. On August 9th, General Yamada, the Commander in Chief of the Kwantung Army, signed an order to destroy Unit 731. The buildings were dynamited and all prisoners were cremated and their ashes cast into the Songhuajiang River outside of Harbin. No prisoners were allowed to survive.
According to one of the nurses, Akama Masako, in the final days of Unit 731, she was, 
“.... with the syphilitic mothers; the doctor in charge of our team delivered the maruta babies himself instead of having the nurses do it, as would normally be the case. At that time, he would order me to stop the blood flow from the mother to the baby. The doctor would take a sample of the blood, then I would let small quantities of blood flow intermittently, as he took successive samples. The test tubes were all lined up on the shelf. He was checking to determine the intensity of the syphilis transmitted from mother to child and the progression of the disease from the time of birth. A researcher came running in, screaming that some maruta had escaped. They were caught by the Special Forces, the team under Ishii Shiro’s brother, Ishii Takeo. Only someone who could be trusted was admitted to that team. They shot the escapees. When it came time to evacuate, we got into a train and left the unit headquarters. It was a long train, maybe twenty or thirty cars. A soldier came running to me and said that a baby was going to be born in a freight car at the end of the train. We ran back through the cars. The wife of one of the unit members was there in labor, and there were soldiers with lots of medals. Surrounded by those high-ranking officers, I delivered the baby. That was August 15, 1945. We were passing through Xinjing. The train engineer ran away and we could not move. Planes were flying overhead, keeping lookout; soldiers were around us. I was trembling in fear. This, I felt, was really war. Then, we heard the emperor’s words ending the war. We were always told to “work hard and Japan will definitely win.” When I heard that we had lost, I was sad. It grew dark. Ishii came over to us carrying a big candle and said, ‘I’m sending you all back home. When you get there, if any one of you gives away the secret of Unit 731, I personally will find you, even if I have to part the roots of the grass to do it.’ He had a fearful diabolical look on his face—my legs were shaking—and not just at me—at everyone. ‘Even if I have to part the grasses....’”
Devastation caused when the world’s second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945
During the occupation of Japan, General MacArthur became the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, SCAP. According to his order, the functions of the Legal Section of the GHQ were to advise him on legal issues and policies related to war crimes and to pursue war criminals. Ishii was one of the most wanted by the United States. Since the United States took its time to occupy Japan, Ishii had time to fake his death and hide some of his documents in his backyard. A newspaper had reported that Ishii was shot to death and the villagers even staged a funeral for him. However, the CIA found him at Kamo Village.

Interrogation and Escaping from Justice

An issue of Pacific Stars and Stripes from February 27, 1946 stated the following, “Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii, head of the Japanese Medical Research Institute, which conducted experiments in certain phases of biological warfare as well as preventive medicine at Ping Fan near Harbin, Manchuria has been located and brought to Tokyo for interrogation after an intensive search by Army intelligence agencies, it was revealed by G-2 SCAP. The search for Gen. Ishii, who has been an important intelligence target, was redoubled early last month following a UP dispatch in the Communist sources with having conducted bubonic plague experiments on American and Chinese POW’s. Shortly thereafter Gen. Ishii was located by the CIC in China Prefecture. An order for him to appear for interrogation was presented to the Japanese and on Jan. 18 he was delivered to SCAP by the Japanese authorities. He was presently living in Tokyo and is not under arrest. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. A. T. Thompson of the Chemical Warfare Service, flew from Washington to Tokyo on a special order to interrogate Ishii.” However, Thompson was not a skilled interrogation officer. He had too much admiration for high ranking officers such as Ishii. This is learned from a stenographic transcript of interrogation by Lt. Colonel A. T. Thompson on February 5, 1946 of Dr. Ishii Shiro. One can see that Thompson allowed Ishii to dodge many questions. However, Thompson was able to extract information on the Ishii bacterial bomb. One can come to the conclusion that Ishii was a master politician from the manner in which he answered during interrogation.
Shiro Ishii at a reunion party of Unit 731 members after the war
In order to please the Soviet Union, the United States agreed to hand them a selected number of scientists for trial. Twelve scientists were selected to be sent to the Soviet Union for the Khabarovsk Trial. Due to the trial’s remote location and the fact that the Soviet Union was a communist state, most of the West saw the Khabarovsk trial as communist propaganda. However, the trial was actually very informative as the Soviet’s style of interrogation was able to rattle the Japanese scientists into confessing.
Dr. Ishii Shiro, after all that he had created and done for the world, lived peacefully ever after.
He died of throat cancer in 1959.
​Many of his subordinates became executives of pharmaceutical companies or held positions in the government.

Related Book

Guide: Ishi Shiro:
​Joseph Mengele of the East

The Japanese occupation of Manchuria promised many opportunities for young scientists who wanted to utilize their training and curiosity to advance Japanese military capabilities. Recently graduated medical student Ishii Shiro seized this occasion, and with funding from the War Ministry of Imperial Japan, founded Unit 731, a biological and chemical warfare research and development arm of the IJA. With consent and funding from the military and government, he recruited the brightest minds from Japan to conduct fatal human experimentation, develop bubonic plague bombs to unleash on nearby villages, and test biological and chemical weapons. 

Within a few years, he rapidly climbed the ranks, going from Captain to General for the Imperial Japanese Army. His impact and power overshadowed his European counterpart, Josef Mengele. After the war, he faked his death, but the CIA was able to locate him. However, he negotiated immunity and was never brought to justice in what came to be known as the elaborate American coverup of Japanese war crimes.

Ishii Shiro: Josef Mengele of the East is a biography based on declassified documents found in the National Archives and Records Administration. This book includes documents from the CIA, Far East Asia Command Center, U.S. Naval Operations, the Khabavosk War Crimes Trial, and precords that survived by chance in Tokyo.