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Unit 731 (Japanese: 731部隊, Hepburn: Nana-san-ichi Butai), short for Manchu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment: 198 and the Ishii Unit, 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 ...
- Unit 731 Experiments: Frostbite Testing
- Vivisection of Conscious Captives
- Unit 731’S Horrifying Weapons Tests
- Syphilis Experiments on Unit 731 Captives
- Rape and Forced Pregnancy
- Germ Warfare on Chinese Civilians
Yoshimura Hisato, a physiologist assigned to Unit 731, took a special interest in hypothermia. As part of Maruta’s study in limb injuries, Hisato routinely submerged captives’ limbs in a tub of water filled with ice and had them held until the arm or leg had frozen solid and a coat of ice had formed over the skin. According to one eyewitness accoun...
Unit 731 started out as a research unit, investigating the effects of disease and injury on the fighting ability of an armed force. One element of the unit, called “Maruta,” took this research a little further than the usual bounds of medical ethics by observing injuries and the course of disease on living patients. At first, these patients were vo...
The effectiveness of various weapons was of obvious interest to the Japanese Army. To determine effectiveness, Unit 731 herded captives together on a firing range and blasted them from varying ranges by multiple Japanese weapons, such as the Nambu 8mm pistol, bolt-action rifles, machine guns, and grenades. Wound patterns and penetration depths were...
Venereal disease has been the bane of organized militaries since ancient Egypt, and so it stands to reason that the Japanese military would take an interest in the symptoms and treatment of syphilis. To learn what they needed to know, doctors assigned to Unit 731 infected victims with the disease and withheld treatment to observe the uninterrupted ...
Beyond just the syphilis experiments, rape became a common feature of Unit 731’s experiments. For example, female captives of childbearing age were sometimes forcibly impregnated so that weapon and trauma experiments could be done on them. After being infected with various diseases, exposed to chemical weapons, or suffering crush injuries, bullet w...
The totality of Unit 731’s 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. To this end, Unit 731 cycled through tens of thousands of captives at several facilities across Manchu...
Jun 7, 2024 · Unit 731, a Japanese Imperial Army program, conducted deadly medical experiments and biological weapons testing on Chinese civilians during WWII. Thousands of prisoners were killed in cruel experiments, and perhaps hundreds of thousands more died from biological weapons testing.
Learn how Japan's Unit 731 conducted ghastly experiments on human guinea pigs in Manchuria during World War II. Explore the history, motives, and legacy of this notorious biological and chemical weapons program.
Aug 12, 2023 · A researcher finds a rare document that reveals the names and ranks of members of the notorious wartime biological weapons unit in Manchuria. The discovery could help trace the postwar movements of the unit's officials and their involvement in medical circles.
Mar 17, 1995 · Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army conducted research by experimenting on humans and by "field testing" plague bombs by dropping them on Chinese cities to see whether they could start...
Nov 24, 2005 · Learn about the history and horrors of Unit 731, a secret unit of the Japanese Imperial Army that conducted human experiments and biological warfare on Chinese victims in Manchuria and China. The article by Tsuneishi Keiichi, a specialist on biowarfare, documents the organization, function, and outcomes of the Ishii Network.
