Unit 731

Unit 731 was a biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army. It engaged in lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by the armed forces of Imperial Japan. Unit 731 was based in the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo until 1945 when the Soviet Union invaded it what would be known as The Soviet Invasion Of Manchuria Of 1945 . It was active throughout China and Southeast Asia. Estimates of those killed by Unit 731 and its related programs range up to half a million people killed on the orders of the camp's director Shirō Ishii.

The Unit 731 complex. Two prisons are hidden in the center of the main building. Possibly the 1940's during WW2 either 1942 or 1943

Establishment

It was officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army. Originally set up by the military police of the Empire of Japan, Unit 731 was taken over and commanded until the end of the war by General Shirō Ishii, a combat medic officer in the Kwantung Army. The program received generous support from the Japanese government until the end of the war in 1945. Unit 731 and other units operated biological weapon production, testing, deployment, and storage facilities. They routinely conducted tests on human beings (who were internally referred to as "logs"). Additionally, biological weapons were tested in the field on cities and towns in China.

Disestablishment

While Unit 731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were put on trial, those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their experiments.^[1] The Americans coopted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own biological warfare program, much as they had done with German researchers in Operation Paperclip. ^[2]

Unit 731 Media

Building of the Unit 731 bioweapon facility in Harbin
Close-up photo of the Unit 731 main "square building" taken by Unit 731's aviation and photography class in 1940
Human dissection experiment room
Ruins of a boiler building at the Unit 731 bioweapons facility
Scan of Yoshimura Hisato [ja]'s frostbite research data
A sketch of the prison cells drawn by a Unit 731 staff member. The octagon represents the pressure chamber.
Shirō Ishii, commander of Unit 731
Ryōichi Naitō [ja]
Yoshimura Hisato [ja]
The Harbin bioweapon facility is open to visitors

References

↑ Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003, p. 109.
↑ Harris, S.H. (2002) Factories of Death. Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up, revised ed. Routledge, New York.

[1] Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003, p. 109.

[2] Harris, S.H. (2002) Factories of Death. Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up, revised ed. Routledge, New York.

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