The report describes conditions of every subject precisely without mentioning what happened to them in the long run. Tamura recalled: Sud had, a few days previously, been interested in talking about women, but now he was thin as a rake, with many purple spots over his body. Eyelids edematous, swollen. In fact, Japan arguably started the war by attacking Manchuria in 1931, and it inarguably waged war with China by invading in 1937. Eyelids and conjunctivae hyperemic and edematous. Guards would hold him while another guard would smash the victim's head open with an ax. all the Japanese scientists immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for the germ warfare data gathered from experiments in Harbin. In August 1945, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki had both been bombed, the Soviet Army had invaded Manchuria and utterly annihilated the Japanese Army, and the emperor read his infamous surrender declaration over the radio, Unit 731 was officially disbanded. After Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931, Ishii Shiro created Unit 731 and began testing biological weapons on unwilling human test subjects. While most documents captured by the US in Europe were microfilmed before being returned to their respective governments, the Department of Defense decided to not microfilm its vast collection of documents before returning them to the Japanese government. [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. A male and female, one infected with syphilis, would be brought together in a cell and forced into sex with each other. Date unspecified. Koizumi had joined a secret poison gas research committee in 1915, during World War I, when he and other Imperial Japanese Army officers were impressed by the successful German use of chlorine gas at the Second Battle of Ypres, in which the Allies suffered 5,000 deaths and 15,000 wounded as a result of the chemical attack. Parts of organs, such as the brain, lungs, and liver, were removed from others. . September 9, 1940, 7 am: Tired and exhausted. He later testified about the playfulness of the experimenters:[24], Some of the experiments had nothing to do with advancing the capability of germ warfare, or of medicine. [62] Yoshimura's lack of remorse was evident in an article he wrote for the Journal Of Japanese Physiology in 1950 in which he admitted to using 20 children and a three-day-old infant in experiments which exposed them to zero-degree-Celsius ice and salt water. 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. 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. [52][53] Massive amounts of blood were drained from some prisoners in order to study the effects of blood loss according to former Unit731 vivisectionist Okawa Fukumatsu. The totality of Unit 731s research was in support of their larger mission, which by 1939 was to develop horrific weapons of mass destruction for use against the Chinese population, and presumably American and Soviet forces, if the time ever came. [21] Researchers in Unit731 also published some of their results in peer-reviewed journals, writing as though the research had been conducted on nonhuman primates called "Manchurian monkeys" or "long-tailed monkeys".[22]. November 1940. The disturbances and upheavals that these invasions caused shook China to its very foundations, triggered a civil war and a famine that probably killed more people than currently live in Canada and Australia combined, and lasted until the countrys Soviet liberation in 1945. The author reveals distressing evidence of Unit 731 experiments involving US prisoners and the use of British as control groups in Northern China, Hainau Island, New Guinea and in Japan. [40][41], During the final months of World WarII, codenamed Cherry Blossoms at Night, No findings of fact were made about the existence of human experimentation, but the courts' ruling was that reparations are determined by international treaties, not national courts. [27][28] In a video interview, former Unit731 member Okawa Fukumatsu admitted to having vivisected a pregnant woman. A few years after World War I, the Geneva Protocol prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons during wartime in 1925. Some of the tests have been described as "psychopathically sadistic, with no conceivable military application". Epiphora. Insisting on anonymity, the former Japanese medical assistant recounted his first experience in dissecting a live human being, who had been deliberately infected with the plague, for the purpose of developing "plague bombs" for war. 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. 431968pp. Japanese personnel in protective suits carry a stretcher through Yiwu, China during Unit 731s germ warfare tests. [114] The sentences doled out to the Japanese perpetrators were unusually lenient by Soviet standards, and all but two of the defendants returned to Japan by the 1950s (with one prisoner dying in prison and the other committing suicide inside his cell). [30], Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. Date unspecified. [17], His younger brother, Prince Mikasa, toured the Unit 731 headquarters in China, and wrote in his memoir that he watched films showing how Chinese prisoners were "made to march on the plains of Manchuria for poison gas experiments on humans. None at all. They sweated themselves to death under the heat of several hot dry fans. In addition to the accusations of propaganda, the US also asserted that the trials were to only serve as a distraction from the Soviet treatment of several hundred thousand Japanese prisoners of war; meanwhile, the USSR asserted that the US had given the Japanese diplomatic leniency in exchange for information regarding their human experimentation. Shiro Ishii ran Unit 731 and performed cruel experiments on prisoners until he was apprehended by the U.S. government and granted full immunity. [20] In a further parallel, the corpses of "sacrificed" subjects were disposed of by incineration. September 1937. It was made clear that anyone resisting would be shot. "[111], While German physicians were brought to trial and had their crimes publicized, the U.S. concealed information about Japanese biological warfare experiments and secured immunity for the perpetrators. [The subjects] suffered such agony they were digging their nails into each other's flesh". In 1984, Japanese historian Tsuneishi Keiichi translated and published over 4,000 pages of U.S. documents on Japanese biological warfare. If Ishii or one of his co-workers wished to do research on the human brain, then they would order the guards to find them a useful sample. First, the Imperial Army of Japan wanted to. Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by the Japanese armed forces. Weakness of all four extremeties. Then their general symptoms and damage to skin, eye, respiratory organs, and digestive organs were observed at 4hours, 24 hours, and 2, 3, and 5days after the shots. [102], Unit731 had branches in Linkou (Branch162), Mudanjiang, Hailin (Branch643), Sunwu (Branch673), Toan, and Hailar (Branch543). 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. Listen above to the History Uncovered podcast, episode 51: Unit 731, also available on Apple and Spotify. [119] Later in that decade, journalists suspected that the murders attributed by the government to Sadamichi Hirasawa were actually carried out by members of Unit731. [116], As above, during the United States occupation of Japan, the members of Unit731 and the members of other experimental units were allowed to go free. Unit 731 (Japanese: 731, Hepburn: Nana-san-ichi Butai),[note 1] short for Manshu Detachment731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment[3]:198 and the Ishii Unit,[5] was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (19371945) and World War II. [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]. Two prisons are hidden in the center of the main building. Since then, much more in depth testimony has been given in Japan. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea, then studied. To this end, Unit 731 cycled through tens of thousands of captives at several facilities across Manchuria, which had been occupied by imperial forces for years. Skin of the face still weeping. [81] Sheldon H. Harris documented that the victims were generally political dissidents, communist sympathizers, ordinary criminals, impoverished civilians, and the mentally disabled. 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. Unit 731 was a Japanese biological warfare research unit that operated during WWII. I understand that other types of gasses were also tested there. November 1940. Unit 731 (731), based in the Pingfang district of Harbin and led by the infamous Japanese microbiologist Shiro Ishii, was a covert biological warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and World War II. Army Engineer Hisato Yoshimura conducted experiments by taking captives outside, dipping various appendages into water of varying temperatures, and allowing the limb to freeze. [11] Japan decided to build Unit 731 in Manchuria because the occupation not only gave the Japanese an advantage of separating the research station from their island, but also gave them access to as many Chinese individuals as they wanted for use as human experimental subjects. As the last witnesses to this history grow old and die, its possible that the matter will never be addressed again. The facility itself was built in 1935 as a replacement for the Zhongma Fortress, and Ishii and his team used it to expand their capabilities. Infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by airplane into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. Some were forced to wear various types of gas masks; others wore military uniforms, and some wore no clothes at all. Unit 731 personnel conduct a bacteriological trial upon a test subject in Nongan County of northeast Chinas Jilin Province. At least 12 large-scale bioweapon field trials were carried out, and at least 11 Chinese cities attacked with biological agents. Body temperature 37 degrees Celsius. On October 4, 1940, Japanese bombers deployed these casings, each loaded with 30,000 fleas that had each sucked blood from a dying prisoner, over the Chinese village of Quzhou. [1] The Americans co-opted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own biological warfare program, much like what had been done with Nazi German researchers in Operation Paperclip. Unit 731 - Japans Secret Human Experiments Disturban History 236K subscribers Subscribe 22K 702K views 1 year ago Formed in response to western powers developing their own chemical and. Richard Stockton is a freelance science and technology writer from Sacramento, California. The gruesome professionalism of Unit 731 included a touch of sardonic humor. [6], One graduate of Unit 1644, Masami Kitaoka, continued to perform experiments on unwilling Japanese subjects from 1947 to 1956. The Japanese unit 731 experiments are a dark part of our history. There is such a thing as professional curiosity: What would happen if we did such and such? What medical purpose was served by performing and studying beheadings? September 8, 1940, 6 am: Neck, breast, upper abdomen and scrotum weeping, The testimony of a unit member that served as a guard graphically demonstrated this reality: One of the former researchers I located told me that one day he had a human experiment scheduled, but there was still time to kill. Unit 731 was a secret chemical and living warfare research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Mucous and bloody erosions across the shoulder girdle. Beyond just the syphilis experiments, rape became a common feature of Unit 731s experiments. Unit731 also performed transfusion experiments with different blood types. [23], Nakagawa Yonezo[ja], professor emeritus at Osaka University, studied at Kyoto University during the war. 13 Apr 2023 06:39:48 The first focused on experimenting with bacteriological diseases, including the bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax, typhoid, and tuberculosis. Xinhua via Getty ImagesUnit 731 personnel conduct a bacteriological trial upon a test subject in Nongan County of northeast Chinas Jilin Province. The U.S. cover-up of Unit 731 war crimes. [84], No one who entered Unit731 came out alive. Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, biological weapons testing, vacuum chamber experiments on humans, vivisection, amputation, and standard weapons testing. Flamethrowers were tested on people. Evil is as evil does. Corporal Kikuchi Norimitsu testified that he was told by another unit member that a prisoner "had shown violence and had struck the experimenter with a door handle" and then "jumped out of the cell and ran down the corridor, seized the keys and opened the iron doors and some of the cells. . In one case, at least half a liter of blood was drawn at two-to-three-day intervals.[54]. The two prisoners told Ishibashi that they had not seen their faces in a mirror since being captured and begged him to get one. Potential witnesses, such as the 300 remaining prisoners, were either gassed or fed poison while the 600 Chinese and Manchurian laborers were shot. For example, one experiment documented the time it took for three-day-old babies to freeze to death.[57][58]. [9][10], Japan started its biological weapons program in the 1930s, partly because biological weapons were banned by the Geneva Convention of 1925; they reasoned that the ban verified its effectiveness as a weapon. Sometimes he did this by dousing the limb with hot water, sometimes by holding it close to an open fire, and other times by leaving the subject untreated overnight to see how long it took for the persons own blood to thaw it out. [88] One of the prisons housed women and children (Building8), while the other prison housed men (Building7). So he and another unit member took the keys to the cells and opened one that housed a Chinese woman. Other sources suggest that it was the usual practice in the Unit for surgeons to stuff a rag (or medical gauze) into the mouth of prisoners before commencing vivisection in order to stifle any screaming. The truth is that Japan's Unit 731 committed some of the most heinous war crimes ever. A glass-walled chamber about three meters square [97sqft] and two meters [6.6ft] high was used. But that didn't stop a Japanese army medical officer named Shiro . Hyperemic conjunctivae. Flamethrowers were tested on humans. The opening of the new Museum of War Crime Evidence by Japanese Army Unit 731 on Aug. 15 in Harbin in northeast China was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, part of commemorations across China that included a major Victory Day military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3. And out of all the areas in which World War II was fought, none were active as long as what would come to be known as the Pacific Theater. Its true purpose was masked as the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory. The 2001 documentary Japanese Devils largely consists of interviews with fourteen Unit731 staff members taken prisoner by China and later released. Victims included not only kidnapped men, women (including pregnant women) and children but also babies born from the systemic rape perpetrated by the staff inside the compound. [69][70] In addition to Chinese casualties, 1,700 Japanese troops in Zhejiang during Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign were killed by their own biological weapons while attempting to unleash the biological agent, indicating serious issues with distribution. [91] Prisoners were repeatedly reused for experiments as long as they were healthy enough. Then, have a look at four of the most evil science experiments ever performed and find out whether or not any of the highly disturbing Nazi research actually contributed anything to medical science. Flamethrowers were also tested, on both covered and exposed skin. One of Ishii's main supporters inside the army was Colonel Chikahiko Koizumi, who later served as Japan's Health Minister from 1941 to 1945. The Japanese doctors and army commanders who had perpetrated the Unit731 experiments received sentences from the Khabarovsk court ranging from 2 to 25years in a Siberian labor camp. "Unit 731" (2021), single from German Deathstep producer Kroww. Wound patterns and penetration depths were then compared on the bodies of the dead and dying inmates. 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. "[68] The children of these women were tested in ways similar to their parents, with specific emphasis on determining how longer infection periods affected the effectiveness of treatments. Some of the agents tested were mustard gas, lewisite, cyanic acid gas, white phosphorus, adamsite, and phosgene gas. A Unit 731 doctor operates on a patient that is part of a bacteriological experiment. [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". Once at the inner-prison, technicians would take samples of the prisoners' blood and stool, test their kidney function, and collect other physical data. [75][76][77] Vivisections were also conducted on native Filipinos in the Philippines. Whenever he moved, a rope around his neck tightened. One member of Unit 731 later recalled that very sick and unresisting captives would be laid out on the slab so a line could be inserted into their carotid artery. Approximately 30 kilograms (66lb) of bubonic plague bacteria could be produced in a few days. [93] The inner-prison was a highly secured building complete with cast iron doors. In 1932, Surgeon General Shir Ishii (, Ishii Shir), chief medical officer of the Imperial Japanese Army and protg of Army Minister Sadao Araki, was placed in command of the Army Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory (AEPRL). In 1952, human experiments carried out in Nagoya City Pediatric Hospital, which resulted in one death, were publicly tied to former members of Unit731. 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. The Truth of Unit 731: Elite medical students and human experiments (2017). the plan of Unit 731 was to use kamikaze pilots to infest San Diego, California, with the plague. I cut him open from the chest to the stomach, and he screamed terribly, and his face was all twisted in agony. Bayonets, swords, and knives were also studied in this way, though the victims were usually bound for these tests. From contemporary accounts, it is known that more than 2,000 civilians died of plague following this attack, and that another 1,000 or so died in nearby Yiwu after the plague was carried there by sick railway workers. None of the Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, or Russian captives assigned to Unit 731 survived their confinement. More than ten doctors and technicians were present. When AB type blood 120 cc was transfused to an O type subject, an hour later the subject described malaise and psychroesthesia in both legs. 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. Feels sick. As explained in an internal War Department memorandum, dated June 23, 1947: "Since it is believed that the USSR possesses only a small . Another group was clothed in summer military uniform and shoes; three had masks and another three had no mask. 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. The ministry alleged that no academic research supported the claim. The subject was not pursued further by Sutton, who was probably unaware of Unit731's activities. 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. [1] Japan's occupation of Manchuria began in 1931 after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The effectiveness of various weapons was of obvious interest to the Japanese Army. The victims came from different nationalities, with the majority being Chinese and a significant minority being Russian. Unit 731 researchers conduct bacteriological experiments with captive child subjects in Nongan County of northeast Chinas Jilin Province. And to study the effects of high G-forces on pilots and falling paratroopers, Unit 731 personnel loaded human beings into large centrifuges and spun them at higher and higher speeds until they lost consciousness and/or died, which usually happened around 10 to 15 Gs, though young children showed a lower tolerance for acceleration forces. 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