Unit 731

While many people know about the atrocities performed by the German Nazi’s during World War II, few know of the similar, if not worse, experiments committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during this same time.
Japan’s focus during World War II was to create and use biological and chemical weapons.
With the recent scare of the Corona Virus and the rumor that it may have started in a biological weapons lab in China, I thought it might be interesting to share with you a fascinating story that most people know very little about.
Unit 731 was a biological and chemical research program headed by General Shiro Ishii in 1936.
The program was disguised as a Water Purification Plant and a Timber Mill that was staged in various cities throughout China.
Unit 731 conducted numerous experiments and vivisections on living human beings without anesthesia for almost ten years. These experiments ranged from performing amputations, to infecting victims with various biological diseases such as; bubonic plague, cholera, typhus, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Unit 731 also conducted biological and chemical attacks on many cities in China and even tried to attack the United States.
Japanese scientists were famous for their work and were known as “science fanatics” and became the world leader in battlefield medicine.
By practicing this type of research Japan was able to keep her soldiers healthy. If her soldiers were healthy, they could fight more effectively and become a stronger force to be reckoned with.
While in a war with China, a young Japanese man was coming up quickly in the scientific and medical community.
Shiro Ishii was born into a wealthy family on June 25, 1892 in a town two hours from Tokyo. This is said to be the reason for his very self-centered personality and the drive to succeed. His socio-economic status earned him respect amongst military and education officials.
In 1916, Shiro was accepted into the Kyoto Imperial University, which was renowned for its medical department, especially in the field of bacteriology. Shiro graduated from the Kyoto Imperial University and joined the Army Medical Corps.
He also married the daughter of the President of the Kyoto Imperial University. It is speculated he only did this to get in better with the schools’ president so he could advance his career.
Shortly after joining the Army Medical Corps, Shiro was a representing member for Japan during the Geneva Convention signing that banned the use of biological and chemical warfare. Shiro “reasoned that if something were bad enough to be outlawed, then it must certainly be effective.”
This is where Shiro insisted on turning the “silent killer” into the “silent ally,” even after knowing it had been banned by the Geneva Convention.
Shiro lobbied to the military how cost effective establishing a bacteriological and chemical program could be.
Developing and studying biological and chemical agents was far less expensive than training and equipping more and more troops to do half the job that bio-chemical weapons could.
Shiro Ishii was given an explicit imperial order by Emperor Hirohito and was now able to develop a program designed to specifically research and develop biological and chemical weapons. This Program became Unit 731.
Shiro Ishii’s main area of expertise was in bacteriological research.
The bacteriological research division was in charge of studying bacteriological agents such as cholera, dysentery, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, and various sexually transmitted diseases.
Bacteria Mass Production and Storage was also an important area of study. It is said that “at Unit 731’s height of production, they had the capacity to create enough bacteria to kill the worlds’ population several times over.”
The first city to be taken hostage by Japan’s Unit 731 was the city of Harbin. Harbin was a booming city with a huge population, perfect for what Shiro and his war criminal partners hoped to accomplish.
The laboratory in Harbin was referred to as an “Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Plant”. This walled city was called the Zhongma Fortress because of how huge it really was. A revolt happened inside the fortress and a few captives were able to escape and talk about the atrocities happening within the city.
The South Manchurian Railway worked into Shiros’ plans as he was able to transport victims easily to and from his laboratories. It is said that at least 9,000 people died from experiments in Harbin.
The next place Unit 731 began to experiment on people in secrecy was a small district of Harbin called PingFang. PingFang’s lab was disguised as a Lumber Mill. The running joke amongst the Japanese soldiers was that victims were called “maruta” which means “logs.” It is estimated anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 people died in PingFang from various tests.
There was no requirement for becoming a victim of Unit 731’s awful experiments. If you were captured, you were experimented on.
The majority of people experimented on were Chinese followed by Russians. Men, women, and children were all used. Prisoners, criminals, local populace, soldiers and anyone else the Japanese could get their hands on became test subjects.
There was even a report of experiments being performed on a four day old baby. It didn’t matter if you were young and healthy or elderly and sick.
The newly ranked General Shiro Ishii now had everything he needed to begin his human experimentation program. He had plenty of funds coming from the Imperial government, had hundreds of thousands of human test subjects and doctors and professionals willing to perform experimentations. Now all Unit 731 had to do was start researching, experimenting, and putting their experiments to use.
Experiments were conducted so the doctors could learn more about how humans live and die. These included studies of dehydration, starvation, frostbite, air pressure – some inmates had their eyes blown out and received transfusions of animal blood.
Even children and babies were destroyed this way.
While these are terrible examples, a major horror that needs to be discussed is the use of “vivisection.”
Vivisection is the act of surgically operating on something living. This means they would literally cut open victims while they were still alive, most of the time without the use of anesthesia. Anesthesia was not used because the doctors felt it could throw off results.
After all, soldiers in the battlefield rarely had anesthesia for their wounds and the goal was to create a more powerful army by giving the Imperial Japanese Army an advantage and taking away their enemies advantage, whatever it may be.
Unit 731 also invested pretty heavily into amputation and its’ effects on the human body. This was a typical battlefield injury that could result in mass casualties for any army.
Some of the researchers would amputate hands and feet and sew them back in opposite places to see if the person could function.
Sometimes they would amputate a limb just to calculate how long it took a victim to bleed to death, or if they would even bleed to death.
Another major area of research that had been heavily invested in was the study of cholera. “Cholera can be life-threatening but is easily prevented and treated.” Cholera can be contracted by a person drinking or eating anything with the Vibrio Cholerae bacterium. This is usually caused by fecal matter being in the drinking water.
Water sources were usually contaminated by armies practicing a scorched-earth policy as they retreated. The water filtration process during World War II was very poor. Luckily, the Japanese developed a water purification system that helped combat the issue. However, they were still unable to figure out a way to treat it once a person became infected. For this reason Unit 731 researched and studied cholera extensively.
Unit 731 infected food and water consumed by victims. The cholera would spread like wildfire and the inhabitants would suffer greatly. The only ones left were those who were too sick to move.
Between 1932 and 1945, Unit 731 attacked PingFang, Manchuria with multiple biological attacks, mainly using cholera. During these attacks it’s estimated between 1000-2000 people were either killed or injured. The purpose of these attacks was to test their biological weapons capabilities.
From1940-1942 Japan again attacked Chinese cities with cholera. This time more than 10,000 people were killed or injured, exact numbers are unknown.
Plague was another biological agent Unit 731 dipped their feet into, more specifically bubonic plague. The Bubonic Plague outbreak in Europe has been viewed for centuries as one of the most devastatingly awful biological killers of all time.
Japan knew if they could use it to their advantage, maybe they would be capable of destruction powerful enough to make their army the strongest of any nation.
“Plague is a bacterial disease, caused by Yersinia pestis, which primarily affects wild rodents. It is spread from one rodent to another by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague.
Japan’s use of plague was rather unique. They could easily infect cities without building an actual bomb to disperse it. Once the plague bacterium was concentrated, Unit 731 researchers would infect fleas with the plague and release fleas in villages. The fleas would get onto rats which would further spread plague.
Unit 731 medical officers would then vivisect patients to see how the symptoms were affecting their victims in real time. The purpose was to see how and where the plague developed.
To spread some of the fleas, Japanese soldiers would release balloons filled with infected fleas and flour. The balloons would pop sending the fleas and flour crashing into villages. The flour would attract rats and become infested with fleas.
While Japan tested many biological and chemical attacks against Chinese cities between 1932 and 1945, it is also important to note that Japan either attempted or planned to attack the United States as well. There were more than 9,000 balloons launched towards the West Coast of the United States in an attempt to kill American civilians and start fires.
Soon, these bombs became visible in American skies without the civilians knowing what they were.
One of these balloons containing a bomb dropped near the city of Bly, Oregon in which 6 people were killed.
Another attack of biological and chemical warfare planned against the United States came in 1945. Japan wanted to use kamikaze pilots to dive bomb into San Diego with planes carrying canisters of plague infested fleas. “Blossoms at Night.”
Japan had planned to use submarines to get closer to the United States in order to launch their kamikaze pilots and begin the attack sometime in September 1945. However, with the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the plans were destroyed along with all of the other germ warfare program evidence.
As World War II came to a close, Japan quickly came under attack by the Allied forces. They did not want the outside world to know what they were doing so began destroying all evidence of Unit 731.
As the United States government began learning of the experiments and attacks conducted by Unit 731, something strange happened. Unit 731 members were paid and released; something the Nazi Germans had been tried and killed for.
The United States government paid off Unit 731 members and completely pardoned them in exchange for their data and research.
As a result, none of the members of Unit 731were prosecuted by the United States government. They were released with full pardons back to Japan, many of these researchers gained prestigious positions in schools and hospitals.
So there you have it folks. While everyone has focused on the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis during WWII, Japan slipped under the radar and helped create the threat of biological warfare we live under today.