Japan's Infamous Unit 731

Title of Review: "What Ever Happened to the Hippocratic Oath"? Written by Bernie Weisz Historian E Mail Address:BernWei1@aol.com

Part of the "Hippocratic Oath" states: "I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect". This did not occur to the medical community nor Hirohito, Japan's "Divine Emperor" during W.W. II. Born a "God" on 4/29/01, Hirohito's childhood friends were generals and kings. Hirohito, Emperor Of Japan. In the 1920's, he visited the Western world, conferring with the Prince of Wales and King George of England. Hirohito felt that according to "Shinto" (the official religion of Japan), he was the "Son Of Heaven", the future "high priest" of Shinto. According to "Shintoism", only the emperor and his descendants were created in God's image. By "Divine Right", he was destined to rule Japan and the whole world. Supposedly, more people have been killed in the name of religion than any other cause. This is not true, as "science" is the best friend of "the killer". Hirohito was not an ordinary god, rather a god of science. Being a specialist in biology, Hirohito understood the massive killing power of diseases and epidemics. Interested more in the science of death than life, it was Hirohito's "divine desire" to rule the world and harness science's killing power. He would see to it that Japan would conquer the world with biological terrorism and biological weapons of mass destruction. This is exactly what Hal Gold's book, "Unit 731" is all about. Hirohito directly financed and created "Unit 731", Japan's code for secret biological weapons laboratories. Human prisoners were the unwilling subjects and the purpose of 731 was to develop deadly biological weapons which could be used to infect, sicken and kill millions of innocent people. Hirohito's intentions were so diabolical that secrecy became the most important factor. Because of this, these biological laboratories had to be located outside Japan in conquered territories beginning in Manchuria where Japanese scientists could be provided with an unlimited supply of unwilling victims. After Japan occupied Manchuria following the 9/18/31/ "Mukden Incident", a brilliant scientist, Dr. Ishii Shiro, under the auspices of Japan's secret police, commenced human experiments in Manchuria. In 1936, a state of the art medical research facility was established in Ping Fang, called "Unit 731". It had a prison that held 500 victims at once and had 100 human cages. Like Auschwitz, 731 had a crematorium, belching human smoke of 731's mutilated and murdered victims. Bodies that were torn, gassed and missing organs by live dissection (called "vivisection") were incinerated. Victims were referred to as "Marutas". Held in small cages, "Maruta's" were forcibly injected with a variety of deadly diseases and bacteria and observed until they were dissected alive. In some cells, "Maruta's" and rats infected with plague carrying fleas were kept together. Diseased and healthy humans were paired to determine how fast disease would spread from human to human. The purpose was to discover the best way to infect prisoners. Unit 731 had a dungeon where victims were hung upside down and tortured, burned with flame throwers and had arms and legs intentionally broken. Maruta's were blown up with grenades, bombarded with lethal dosages of x-rays, injected with air, and frozen to death. Vivisections (live dissections with no anesthesia) were performed on prisoners after intentional infection to observe what disease does to a human's insides. So that the results were not affected, no sedatives were administered. Women prisoners were raped and impregnated by other prisoners under guard's orders. They would be injected or exposed to sexually transmitted diseases and then live dissections would be performed to investigate the effects on different internal organs at different stages of the disease. Prisoners were also directly injected with plagues, dissected alive and burned in 731's crematoriums. To determine treatment for battlefield injuries, prisoners were shot, blown up, set on fire, often receiving horrible injuries that would be allowed to fester and become infected with gangrene. If Ishii's "research stock" ran low, he would order the military to supply him with newly captured "P.O.W's", including U.S. and British soldiers. Furthermore, Ishii's secret police, called the "Kenpeitai" would scour Chinese cities for new subjects. They would be arrested and transported to Unit 731 for imprisonment and subjected to horrible atrocities. Unit 731 also created all types of poison gasses that could infect, blind and kill innocent civilians. Plague infested fleas were spread by low flying planes over Chinese cities causing widespread epidemics and bubonic plague. 731 members distributed infected foods, drinks and clothes to locals as a biological weapons test. Whole towns and villages would become sick. Unit 731 developed a porcelain contained "flea bomb" that was used to spread diseases. Water supplies and wells were intentionally infected with anthrax, dysentery and typhoid. Ishii developed the "UJI-50 Bacterial Bomb" in 1944, with the U.S. as it's intended target. The true tragedy of this book is it's conclusion. Even though Japan surrendered in August, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur, fearing the Soviet Union's acquisition of Japan's biological weapons knowledge, made secret deals with Hirohito, Ishii, et. al., including all participating staff of Unit 731. All members were given complete immunity against being charged with war crimes. None were questioned nor charged in return for complete cooperation and U.S. access to all research findings. This also happened with America's treatment with certain Nazi scientists such as Werner Von Braun in the face of the "Cold War". In the Koream War, after President Harry Truman refused General MacArthur's demands to use atomic weapons on the North Koreans and Communist Chinese, Unit 731 reassembled in 1950. Code named the "Green Cross", Japanese war criminals assisted the U.S. in conducting biological warfare against the North Koreans. Was justice served? You be the judge!