INTRODUCTION• COVERT BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT UNIT OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY

• RESPONSIBLE FOR SOME OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS WAR CRIMES CARRIED OUT BY JAPAN

• KNOWN AS THE EPIDEMIC PREVENTION AND WATER PURIFICATION DEPARTMENT OF THE KWANTUNG ARMY

• AROUND 3,000 AND 250,000 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE THE VICTIMS (AN ESTIMATED AMOUNT)

THEN

NOW

NAME : SHIRO ISHIIBORN : JUNE 25, 1892DIED : OCTOBER 9, 1959ALLEGIANCE : EMPIRE OF JAPANYEARS ACTIVE : 1921 – 1945 Shiro Ishii

ESTABLISHER

Shirō Ishii, was appointed as lieutenant general of Unit 731

In 1930s, Biological Weapons interested Japanese High Command.

WHAT LED TO IT’S ESTABLISHMENT

• BEFORE GETTING APPOINTED, ISHII HAD A TWO YEAR STUDY TRIP ABROAD THAT GAVE HIM THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT WESTERNERS DEVELOPING THEIR OWN PROGRAMS FOR PRODUCING BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS.

• AFTER GETTING IN COMMAND, HE CREATED A SECRET RESEARCH GROUP KNOWN AS “THE TOGO UNIT”.

• WITH SUPPORT OF KWANTUNG ARMY, UNIT WAS FURTHER EXPANDED AND SUBDIVIDED. EVENTUALLY, ALL OF THESE UNITS COLLECTIVELY BECAME UNIT 731.

OTHER SIGNIFICANT MEMBERS

• LIEUTENANT COLONEL RYOICHI NAITO• CHIKAHIKO KOIZUMI (THEN BECAME JAPAN’S HEALTH

MINISTER)• MASAJI KITANO• YOSHIO SHINOZUKA• YASUJI KANEKO

GATHERING MARUTAS:• MAIN LOCATION WAS IN PINGFANG, CHINA I.E. MAXIMUM

CHINESE CIVILIANS AND POW’S• OTHERS INCLUDING PACIFIC ISLANDERS, SOUTH EAST

ASIANS AND TRIBAL LIVING ON THE COAST• CAPTURED BANDITS, ANTI-JAPANESE PARTISANS,

CRIMINALS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS.

ATROCIOUS ACTIVITIES

• PRISONERS WERE REFERRED TO AS “LOGS”. • THE “LOGS” WERE REFERRED TO AS “MONKEYS” BUT

DESPITE OF ALL THE COVER-UP, IS WAS AN OPEN SECRET THAT HUMANS WERE THE REAL TEST SUBJECTS.

• AFTER EXPERIMENTS AND HORRIFIC PUNISHMENTS, SHIRO ISHII PRODUCED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS GIVING THE RESULTS OF THESE HIDEOUS EXPERIMENTS AND CIRCULATING THEM THROUGHOUT THE JAPANESE MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY.

Deployment Diagram for Germ Bomb. N.d. Photograph. NetEase. 13 June 2005. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Unit 731. N.d. Photograph. Moral Low Ground. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

LaShiro Ishii - Unit 731. N.d. Photograph. Soundcloud. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Forgotten Horrors: The Human Experiments of Unit 731. N.d. Photograph. Knowledgenuts. 13 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.Inhumane

Experiments

LIST OF EXPERIMENTS BEING PERFORMED• GERM WARFARE• FROSTBITE TESTING• FIELD TESTS• DOOM FOR THE FEMALE• BRAIN EXPERIMENT• VIVISECTION• BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

GERM WARFARE

• PRISONERS WERE INJECTED WITH DISEASE INCEPTIVE GERMS, IN THE FORM OF VACCINATIONS.

• TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF VENEREAL/SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES, MALE AND FEMALE PRISONERS WERE INJECTED WITH SYPHILIS AND GONORRHEA.

• PLAGUE FLEAS, INFECTED CLOTHING AND INFECTED SUPPLIES ENCASED IN BOMBS WERE DROPPED ON CHINESE CIVILIANS WHICH RESULTED IN CHOLERA, ANTHRAX AND PLAGUE.

• DEATH ESTIMATION WERE AROUND 400,000 CIVILIANS.

FROSTBITE TESTING

• THE UNIT WAS ALSO KEENLY INTERESTED IN “FROSTBITE” EXPERIMENTATION.

• FROSTBITE DEGRADED MILITARY EFFICIENCY DURING THE BITTER MANCHURIAN WINTERS.

• ECHOING SIMILAR WORK BY THE NOTORIOUS NAZI, DR. JOSEPH MENGELE, NAKED PRISONERS, BOTH MALES AND FEMALES WERE SUBJECTED TO SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES.

• LATER THEY WERE “DEFROSTED” BY A RANGE OF EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES.

• IT WAS USUAL FOR THESE “LOGS” TO HAVE THEIR LIMBS BEATEN WITH STICKS UNTIL THEY RESOUNDED WITH A HARD, HOLLOW RING, SIGNIFYING THE FREEZING PROCESS WAS COMPLETE.

FIELD TESTS:

• OTHER EXPERIMENTS INVOLVED “HANGING MATERIAL” (I.E. HUMANS) UPSIDE DOWN TO DETERMINE HOW LONG IT TOOK FOR SUBJECTS TO CHOKE TO DEATH.

• ANOTHER INVOLVED INJECTING AIR INTO PRISONERS TO TEST FOR THE ONSET OF EMBOLISMS.

• PRACTICE OF INJECTING HORSE URINE INTO THE KIDNEYS OF PRISONERS.

• A COMMON PRACTICE WAS FEEDING “LOGS” WITH FOOD AND DRINK HEAVILY LACED WITH CHOLERA, HEROIN AND CASTOR OIL SEEDS AND OTHER PATHOGENS.

• PRISONERS WERE USED AS HUMAN TARGETS TO TEST GRENADES AND FLAME THROWERS POSITIONED AT VARIOUS DISTANCES AND POSITIONS

• IN OTHER TESTS, SUBJECTS WERE PLACED INTO HIGH-PRESSURE CHAMBERS UNTIL DEATH, PLACED INTO CENTRIFUGES AND SPUN UNTIL DEATH

• INJECTED WITH ANIMAL BLOOD; EXPOSED TO LETHAL DOSES OF X-RAYS, SUBJECTED TO VARIOUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS INSIDE GAS CHAMBERS, INJECTED WITH SEA WATER TO DETERMINE IF IT COULD BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR SALINE SOLUTION, AND BURNED OR BURIED ALIVE.

 

DOOM FOR THE FEMALE• WOMEN AT UNIT 731 WERE RAPED OR INFECTED WITH A

SERUM CONTAINING VIRULENT STRAINS OF SYPHILIS IN ORDER TO RESPOND TO THE GROWING THREAT OF SYPHILIS AMONG JAPANESE TROOPS

• EXTERNAL REACTIONS LIKE CHANGE IN SKIN AND ORGAN APPEARANCE AS WELL AS INTERNAL CHANGES WERE STUDIED. IN THE CASE OF THE BODY’S INTERNAL REACTION TO INFECTION, PATIENTS WERE VIVISECTED OR KILLED WITH AUTOPSIES BEING CONDUCTED IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD.

• FORCED PREGNANCY WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF VERTICAL TRANSMISSION OF THE DISEASE.

VIVISECTION

• PRISONERS WERE SUBJECTED TO VIVISECTIONS WITHOUT ANESTHESIA, AFTER INJECTING THEM WITH VARIOUS DISEASES.

• SCIENTISTS PERFORMED INVASIVE SURGERY LIKE REMOVING PRISONERS BODY ORGANS WHILE THEY WERE ALIVE BECAUSE RESEARCHERS FEARED THAT DECOMPOSITION WOULD AFFECT THEIR RESULTS IF CAPTIVES WERE KILLED BEFORE GETTING OPERATED.

• OTHER HORRIFIC ACTIVITIES INCLUDE LIMB AMPUTATION AND REMOVAL THEN REATTACHMENT OF ORGANS TO OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE BODY, WHICH RESULTED IN ROTTING OR GANGRENE.

BRAIN EXPERIMENTS

• WHEN ISHII WANTED A HUMAN BRAIN TO EXPERIMENT UPON, GUARDS WERE ASSIGNED TO ACQUIRE THE ORGAN. GRABBING A PRISONER, THE GUARDS HELD HIM DOWN, WHILE ANOTHER CLEAVED OPEN HIS SKULL WITH AN AXE

• THE ORGAN WAS CLUMSILY REMOVED AND RUSHED TO ISHII’S LABORATORY. THE REMAINS OF THE “SACRIFICED” PRISONER WERE THEN “DISPOSED” OFF IN THE CAMP CREMATORIUM

• GENDER OR AGE WAS NEVER AN ISSUE BECAUSE EVERY PRISONER IN THE CAMP HAD THEIR OWN FATE WRITTEN OR CATEGORIZED IN VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS SUITABLE TO THEIR AGE.

BIOLOGICAL WARFARE• THE RESEARCHERS PERFORMED TESTS ON PRISONERS

WITH BUBONIC PLAGUE, CHOLERA, SMALLPOX, BOTULISM, AND OTHER DISEASES.

• THIS RESEARCH LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEFOLIATION BACILLI BOMB AND THE FLEA BOMB USED TO SPREAD BUBONIC PLAGUE.

• THESE BOMBS ENABLED JAPANESE SOLDIERS TO LAUNCH BIOLOGICAL ATTACKS, INFECTING AGRICULTURE, RESERVOIRS, WELLS, AND OTHER AREAS WITH ANTHRAX, PLAGUE-CARRIER FLEAS, TYPHOID, DYSENTERY, CHOLERA, AND OTHER DEADLY PATHOGENS

• 1,700 JAPANESE IN CHEKIANG WERE KILLED BY THEIR OWN BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS WHILE ATTEMPTING TO UNLEASH THE BIOLOGICAL AGENT, WHICH INDICATES SERIOUS ISSUES WITH DISTRIBUTION.

DIVISIONS

UNIT 731 WAS DIVIDED INTO EIGHT DIVISIONS• DIVISION 01: RESEARCH ON BUBONIC PLAGUE,

CHOLERA, ANTHRAX, TYPHOID AND TUBERCULOSIS USING LIVE HUMAN SUBJECTS. FOR THIS PURPOSE, A PRISON WAS CONSTRUCTED TO CONTAIN AROUND THREE TO FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE.

• DIVISION 02: RESEARCH FOR BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS USED IN THE FIELD, IN PARTICULAR THE PRODUCTION OF DEVICES TO SPREAD GERMS AND PARASITES.

• DIVISION 03: PRODUCTION OF SHELLS CONTAINING BIOLOGICAL AGENTS. STATIONED IN HARBIN.

• Division 04: Production of other miscellaneous agents.

• Division 05: Training of personnel.• Divisions 06-08: Equipment, medical and

administrative units

FACILITIES

• THE UNIT 731 COMPLEX COVERED SIX SQUARE KILOMETERS AND CONSISTED OF MORE THAN 150 BUILDINGS. THE DESIGN OF THE FACILITIES MADE THEM HARD TO DESTROY BY BOMBING.

• THE COMPLEX CONTAINED VARIOUS FACTORIES. IT HAD AROUND 4,500 CONTAINERS TO BE USED TO RAISE FLEAS, SIX CAULDRONS TO PRODUCE VARIOUS CHEMICALS, AND AROUND 1,800 CONTAINERS TO PRODUCE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS. APPROXIMATELY 30 KG OF BUBONIC PLAGUE BACTERIA COULD BE PRODUCED IN SEVERAL DAYS.

• IT HAD MANY DIVISIONS SPREAD ACROSS JAPAN AND CHINA. THE MAIN CENTERS WERE LOCATED IN TOKYO, GUANGZHOU AND PINGFANG.

SURRENDER & IMMUNITY• OPERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED UNTIL

THE END OF THE WAR. BY THE END OF THE WAR, ISHII’S SUBORDINATES WERE BOUND TO AN OATH OF SECRECY. THEY DESTROYED ALL THE EVIDENCES AND PINGFANG FACILITY AND OTHER SITES, AS BEST AS THEY COULD.

• DESPITE CLAIMS THAT MOST OF THE ALL THE IMPORTANT RECORDS WERE DESTROYED, IT IS SAID THAT MANY WERE BURIED BY ISHII, FOR LATER RETRIEVAL.

• DESPITE THEIR PRECAUTIONS, ALLIED INTELLIGENCE HAD SIZEABLE DOSSIERS ON THE LEADING JAPANESE MICROBIOLOGISTS.

• AS A QUID-PRO-QUO, AMERICANS PROMISED TO PROVIDE IMMUNITY TO ALL THE RESEARCHERS BUT IN RETURN WERE DEMANDING FOR REMAINING RECORDS.

• SO, THE US AND JAPANESE GOVERNMENTS ROUTINELY DENIED THAT THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE, DESPITE AN INCREASING BODY OF AVAILABLE INFORMATION.

• THE SECRECY FINALLY WILTED IN 1993, WHEN US DEFENSE SECRETARY, WILLIAM PERRY, UNDER PRESSURE, PROMISED TO DECLASSIFY RECORDS OF WW2 EXPERIMENTS.

• SOVIET TRIALS WERE CONDUCTED FOR CAPTURED JAPANESE PERPETRATORS, HELD IN KHABAROVSK IN DECEMBER 1949.

• JAPANESE DOCTORS AND ARMY COMMANDERS WHO HAD PERPETRATED THE UNIT 731 EXPERIMENTS RECEIVED SENTENCES FROM THE KHABAROVSK COURT RANGING FROM TWO TO 25 YEARS IN A SIBERIAN LABOR CAMP

AFTER WORLD WAR II • AFTER WORLD WAR II, THE SOVIET UNION BUILT A

BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS FACILITY IN SVERDLOVSK USING DOCUMENTATION CAPTURED FROM UNIT 731 IN MANCHURIA.

• UNDER THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION THE MEMBERS OF UNIT 731 AND OTHER EXPERIMENTAL UNITS WERE ALLOWED TO GO FREE.

• ONE GRADUATE OF UNIT 1644, MASAMI KITAOKA, CONTINUED TO DO EXPERIMENTS ON UNWILLING JAPANESE SUBJECTS FROM 1947 TO 1956 WHILE WORKING FOR JAPAN'S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH SCIENCES. HE INFECTED PRISONERS WITH RICKETTSIA AND MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS WITH TYPHUS.

OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE IN JAPAN:

• SINCE THE END OF THE ALLIED OCCUPATION, THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS REPEATEDLY APOLOGIZED FOR ITS PRE-WAR BEHAVIOR IN GENERAL.

• UNIT 731 PRESENTS A SPECIAL PROBLEM, SINCE UNLIKE NAZI HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION WHICH THE U.S. PUBLICLY CONDEMNED, THE ACTIVITIES OF UNIT 731 ARE KNOWN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC ONLY FROM THE TESTIMONIES OF WILLING FORMER UNIT MEMBERS.

• THE AMERICAN RETRIEVAL OF THE HIGHLY DOCUMENTED EXPERIMENTATIONS OF UNIT 731 IS COVERT AND NOT SOMETHING EITHER THE U.S. OR JAPAN ARE WILLING TO ADMIT HAS HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Handed over the experiment data to the U.S. To Avoid Punishment.

The Trial. N.d. Photograph. NetEase. 13 June 2005. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Protests and litigations from Victims still continue…

Protest From Unit 731 Victims. N.d. Photograph. News.xinhuanet. 23 Mar. 2005. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Denial and Concealment are not Acceptable

Today

CONCLUSION:

TIME HAS CHANGED AND PEOPLE NOW HAVE GRADUALLY LEARNED TO MOVE ON. REOPENING TOPICS AKIN THIS SHOULD NOT BY ANY MANNER CHANGE THE ASPECTS AND VIEWS OF PEOPLE IN CURRENT TIMES.

ALSO, MODERN DAY GOVERNING AUTHORITIES SHOULD TRY TO MAINTAIN FACTS RELATED TO HISTORICAL EVENTS CRYSTAL CLEAR IF THE FACTS DOESN’T CREATE MUCH IMPACTS ON POLITICAL RELATIONS.

• A Spectacular Presentation Of Unit 731's Work. N.d. Photograph. Pingfang District. 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.

• Ad Hoc Prison Historic Site. N.d. Photograph. Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Germ Factory, Pingfang District. 13 June 2005. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.

• Captured Chinese Resistance Fighters. N.d. Photograph. Harbin. 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.

• Corpses of Plague Patients In Liaobei District. N.d. Photograph. Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Germ Factory. NetEase. 13 June 2005. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

• Corpses of Plague Patients In Pingfang District. N.d. Photograph. Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Germ Factory. NetEase. 13 June 2005. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

• Deployment Diagram for Germ Bomb. N.d. Photograph. NetEase. 13 June 2005. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

• Forgotten Horrors: The Human Experiments of Unit 731. N.d. Photograph. Knowledgenuts. 13 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

• Introduction to Biological Weapons. N.d. Photograph. CANCER| Just Another WordPress.com Weblog. 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014

Work Cited