In 1937, the Japanese Military invaded Manchuria.
Some military strategists feel that the invasion of China was the trigger point for the beginning of World War II, caused by Japanese aggression two years before Germany's invasion of Poland.
This was also the beginning of one of the most dangerous and barbaric acts of science ever committed in the history of mankind. It was called Unit 731 or the 731 Corps.
The Japanese government had been fascinated with biological
weapons due to the ease of manufacturing and dispersal of these agents. Biological weapons are also very inexpensive to produce. Any person who knows how to make beer is able to manufacture Anthrax, it is a simple fermenting process.
In the late 1930's, a doctor and a high ranking general was chosen to oversee all operations at Unit 731. His name was Shiro Ishi.
Some people regarded him as monster, some people called him a genius. Regardless he is considered the father of modern Biological Warfare and also helped pioneer the American Biological program as will be discussed.
Ishi came from an extremely wealthy family, with vast land holdings.
Due to this Ishi grew up with an arrogant attitude toward what he considered lesser people, viewing them more as cattle.
This played an important part in the nightmare that was to come. No mercy or compassion would be shown in Ishi's experiments. Some procedures were done almost as they "went along'' with no consideration for the victim's suffering.
Over 10,000 Scientist were assigned to this program. Most were considered the best in their fields. Hundreds of Scientists died as a result of their work by becoming infected by their own pathogens on this program.
Ishi had chosen the city of Ping Fong as the location for his new laboratory. Everything was state of the art and Ishi made sure the facility lacked for nothing. There was even a house of prostitution at the compound.
Ishi chose the suburb of Harbin as the site for their labs. The scientists had a strange sense of humor about the facility calling it a water treatment facility or a lumber mill. The unfortunate victims were called "Maruta". Roughly translated this term means "Logs".
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This was part of the dehumanization process at 731. In other words they viewed their test subjects
as subhuman, this allowed the scientists basically to do what ever horrific experiments they chose for them.
The experiments began almost immediately. Test subjects were either taken from the local jails in Manchuria or the secret police just "Swept" the streets looking for bodies for the next round of experiments.
The victims were routinely injected with pathogens such as Small Pox, Anthrax, Plague, Botulism, and other deadly diseases. After becoming ill , the victims were taken into an operating room tied to a table and dissected usually without anesthetic in order to see the damage the illnesses
had done to the internal organs.
The Japanese doctors were very interested in the difference between anesthetic and non anesthetic operations to observe the if there was a difference in the immune system.
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After this the remains were simply disposed of, usually by cremation.
Tests were also done on near by villages by spraying the area with infected fleas. After infection set in live autopsies were performed in the fields next to the housing. The only reason these sites were chosen was that they were within bombing range.
Another test facility was the Anda Proving Grounds. Tests were conducted here on the blast effects of conventional weapons. The victims were placed at different distances from bombs that were then detonated. After the tests, doctors would examine the results.
After the Atomic Bombs were used on Japan and the war obviously over, the scientists entered into negotiations for their medical data and tests with the United States in exchange for immunity from legal proceedings. The General in charge of these negotiations was Douglas MacArthur. After two years of delays and hearings, the U. S. gave the Japanese Scientists full immunity from prosecution.
Not one of staff at 731 were ever prosecuted for war crimes. Some actually rose to very high levels in the Japanese government such as Surgeon General and Deans of Universities and heads of Medical Departments.
The human experiments at Unit 731 made the Nazi tests look tame. Not to mention that unaware to most of the general public the Nazi Government never violated the Geneva Convention.
Ishi was brought to the U. S. to work at Fort Detrick on the U. S. secret Bio-Chemical program in this country. Ishi continued his work on Pathogens in secret for years in the United States. The documents Ishi gave the U.S. government also gave U.S. scientists an opportunity to examine experiments that would never be allowed in this country.
Ishi died in 1956. After all the atrocities he had committed he never received any punishment for his crimes - Due to the deal he made with MacArthur and the United States for his medical data and human experiments.
by
Kenneth Lafler
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