The 'experiments' involved human vivisection and were conducted more than seven decades ago when Kasahara was a member of Unit 731, the Japanese Imperial Army's covert biological warfare research. Unit 731 - Free download as Word Doc. PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. War veteran gives Unit 731 testimony. Unit 731: The Horrors of the Asian Auschwitz. By Contributing Writer. October 12, 2011 Share on Facebook. The unit is thought to have been responsible for the death of up to 200,000 civilians and military personnel – the vast majority Chinese and Korean nationals, but also South East Asians, Pacific Islanders and Allied POWs.
Download unit 731 or read online here in PDF or EPUB. Please click button to get unit 731 book now. All books are in clear copy here, and all files are secure so don't worry about it. In the first part of Unit 731: Testimony, author Hal Gold draws upon a painstakingly accumulated reservoir of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial. Ignored by the Western world for decades. Hal Gold’s book Unit 731: Testimony has been applauded by reviewers as “another shot in the battle to set things right.”1 Gold’s book gives a history of the Japanese atrocities carried out by General Ishii Shiro’s Unit 731 in Manchuria during World War II. The book also has transcripts.
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A publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features..more
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features..more
Published March 8th 2016 by Gallery / Saga Press
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Leah Rachel von EssenBecause people believe that accessible writing isn't for adults.
I often see this problem with fantasy and sci fi being considered for young readers…moreBecause people believe that accessible writing isn't for adults.
I often see this problem with fantasy and sci fi being considered for young readers simply because it is genre fiction. It's a common supposition that's unfair to most authors categorized that way.(less)
I often see this problem with fantasy and sci fi being considered for young readers…moreBecause people believe that accessible writing isn't for adults.
I often see this problem with fantasy and sci fi being considered for young readers simply because it is genre fiction. It's a common supposition that's unfair to most authors categorized that way.(less)
Irina ChenAscending The Leyou Pleasure Park
Li Shangyin (813-858) -- Translated by Frank C. Yue
The gloom in my heart blooms towards late evening;
Up the old Park…moreAscending The Leyou Pleasure Park
Li Shangyin (813-858) -- Translated by Frank C. Yue
The gloom in my heart blooms towards late evening;
Up the old Park my cart I am driving.
The setting sun's endlessly endearing,
But the light of day is disappearing!(less)
2016 Adult SFF by Authors of ColorLi Shangyin (813-858) -- Translated by Frank C. Yue
The gloom in my heart blooms towards late evening;
Up the old Park…moreAscending The Leyou Pleasure Park
Li Shangyin (813-858) -- Translated by Frank C. Yue
The gloom in my heart blooms towards late evening;
Up the old Park my cart I am driving.
The setting sun's endlessly endearing,
But the light of day is disappearing!(less)
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Rating details
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Jul 14, 2017Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction, american-21st-c, short-stories, favorites
Absolutely stunning collection of short stories which teach and entertain in equal measure. Ken Liu has an incredible imagination and these stories are all so different and yet all so amazing. I, like many others, come to Ken Liu after his superb translations of Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem and Death's End and I can see that he was the perfect choice because his love of language and culture echoes that of Cixin Liu in many, many ways. I also saw some commonality in some of their sci fi ide..more
Nov 07, 2017Petrik rated it really liked it Shelves: owned-physical-books
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a powerful and beautiful anthology that encompassed some of the most relatable stories to our society, and some even felt very personal to me.
Excluding translation works, this anthology is my first experience reading Ken Liu’s original stories. Right after reading Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Cixin Liu, I knew right from that moment that I must read more of Ken Liu’s original work because of the fantastic job he did on translating The Three-Body Problem..more
Excluding translation works, this anthology is my first experience reading Ken Liu’s original stories. Right after reading Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Cixin Liu, I knew right from that moment that I must read more of Ken Liu’s original work because of the fantastic job he did on translating The Three-Body Problem..more
A beautifully written, powerful anthology of first-rate speculative fiction stories.
Ken Liu is an impressive guy, besides writing he is also a lawyer and a programmer. Many readers first read his translation of Liu Cixin’s Hugo award winning novel The Three-Body Problem. I read his 2014 Tor.com short work Reborn and so had a good idea he can produce a gem on his own.
Building on ubiquitous themes of Asian-American cultural pluralities and Chinese myth and legend, Liu does an impressive job creati..more
Dec 23, 2016Matthew Quann rated it it was amazingKen Liu is an impressive guy, besides writing he is also a lawyer and a programmer. Many readers first read his translation of Liu Cixin’s Hugo award winning novel The Three-Body Problem. I read his 2014 Tor.com short work Reborn and so had a good idea he can produce a gem on his own.
Building on ubiquitous themes of Asian-American cultural pluralities and Chinese myth and legend, Liu does an impressive job creati..more
Shelves: fantasy, favourites, sci-fi, short-story-collections, sff-award-winners
A review of all short stories in this collection featuring my parents!
Herein contains a review unlike any other I’ve done! I get home so infrequently that I drummed up the idea of involving my parents in some of my reading. My parents enjoy the odd book, but aren’t what I would describe as avid readers. So I proposed that I would read them a story a night (for 15 nights) from acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy author Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie.
All they knew about the book prior to the reading was..more
Jun 14, 2012Nataliya rated it really liked it · review of another editionHerein contains a review unlike any other I’ve done! I get home so infrequently that I drummed up the idea of involving my parents in some of my reading. My parents enjoy the odd book, but aren’t what I would describe as avid readers. So I proposed that I would read them a story a night (for 15 nights) from acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy author Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie.
All they knew about the book prior to the reading was..more
Shelves: hugo-nebula, 2012-reads
This short, bittersweet, and deceptively simple 15-page story (which you can read free here) focuses on the unexpected pain of trying to belong, showing it through a boy's troubled relationship with his mother, viewed through the prism of cultural conflict, the inevitable clash between the old and the new, and the soft tinge of origami-shaped sadness.
' Dad had picked Mom out of a catalog.'..more
'What kind of woman puts herself into a catalog so that she can be bought? The high school me thought I kne
Jul 04, 2016Ivan rated it it was amazing
I rated each story separate in updates and I could make average rating but I'm not going to do that. Whole is more than sum of it's parts and as a whole this short story collection is an easy 5 stars and only short story collection that I give 5 stars that isn't written by Ray Bradbury. Best stories in this collection are among best I read overall and even 'lesser' ones didn't left me indifferent.
In genre stories are rather diverse. There is good ol' hard sci-fi, alternative history and historic..more
Apr 10, 2018❄️Nani❄️ rated it really liked itIn genre stories are rather diverse. There is good ol' hard sci-fi, alternative history and historic..more
Shelves: adult-fantasy-sci-fi, favorites, east-asia
4.75⭐
The day I read a book written by Ken Liu and think it's less than pure magnificent is the day the world will cease to exist.
Once again, I'm entranced.
I was first introduced to his genius through his Dandelion Dynasty series and the Wall of Storms (second book) instantly became one of my top five favourite books of all time.
I knew then he was a once-in-a-generation author and this is by no means an exaggeration, just a simple statement of fact and this beautiful collection of short stories..more
Jul 21, 2015Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it · review of another editionThe day I read a book written by Ken Liu and think it's less than pure magnificent is the day the world will cease to exist.
Once again, I'm entranced.
I was first introduced to his genius through his Dandelion Dynasty series and the Wall of Storms (second book) instantly became one of my top five favourite books of all time.
I knew then he was a once-in-a-generation author and this is by no means an exaggeration, just a simple statement of fact and this beautiful collection of short stories..more
Shelves: review-copy, science-fiction, short-stories, fantasy, anthologies
4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2016/04/07/b..
One of my favorite books last year was The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, but before he published his debut novel he was already an accomplished writer of many award-winning short stories. While in general I am not a big reader of short fiction, I’d happily make the exception for some authors’ anthologies and you can definitely bet Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is one of them.
Like many collections, there are stor..more
One of my favorite books last year was The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, but before he published his debut novel he was already an accomplished writer of many award-winning short stories. While in general I am not a big reader of short fiction, I’d happily make the exception for some authors’ anthologies and you can definitely bet Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is one of them.
Like many collections, there are stor..more
Feb 14, 2016Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
4.5 stars, rounding up. A young boy, the son of an American father and a Chinese immigrant mother, discovers that his mother has the magical gift of making origami animals that live. She makes him a lion, Laohu, a shark, and other paper animals that play and chase around their home.
The details of his childhood, playing with his living origami menagerie, are delightful:
The details of his childhood, playing with his living origami menagerie, are delightful:
Once, the water buffalo jumped into a dish of soy sauce on the table at dinner. (He wanted to wallow, like a real water buffalo...more
Sep 15, 2016Kaitlin rated it it was amazing
This is a wonderful collection of short SFF/Speculative fiction stories all written by the highly intelligent and eloquent Ken Liu. This wasn't my first time reading from Liu as I read his translation of the Three Body Problem, but this was my first time reading his own work and I was thoroughly impressed!
What I think I loved most about the stories within this collection is that each one felt unique and genuine. Every voice of the narrator was different and they all had differing themes and topi..more
Nov 16, 2016Mike rated it it was amazing · review of another editionWhat I think I loved most about the stories within this collection is that each one felt unique and genuine. Every voice of the narrator was different and they all had differing themes and topi..more
Shelves: science-fiction, short-story, anthologies, magical-realism, reviewed, fantasy
In retrospect I decided to up this book to a full five stars. It truly was a wonderful read and had some many diverse and interesting stories within it. While perhaps not as strongly linked thematically as Stories of Your Life and Others (also by a Chinese-American writer), they nearly all delivered on fascinating and engaging stories.
One common motif he employed was writing about various alien (and I mean ALIEN) species and civilizations. One story looked at how they created books (or their cul..more
Apr 09, 2012Flannery rated it really liked it · review of another editionOne common motif he employed was writing about various alien (and I mean ALIEN) species and civilizations. One story looked at how they created books (or their cul..more
Shelves: read-in-2012, shorts
This short story won the 2011 Nebula Prize for Short Fiction. The Paper Menagerie is a very quick 15 or so page read about a young man's relationship with his mother. The narrator is half American/half Chinese and his mother came to live in the suburbs of Connecticut as a mail order bride. He can't understand why she was ever a mail order bride, why his father married her, and why she won't learn English or try harder to fit into American culture. The strongest connection between mother and son..more
Jan 04, 2017Thomas rated it liked it Shelves: own-physical, fantasy, adult-fiction, historical-fiction, science-fiction, short-stories-for-fun
I wanted to love this short story collection, but most of Ken Liu's characters fell flat. These stories contain so much good stuff: fascinating elements of science-fiction and fantasy, themes that include culture and racism and fighting for justice, surprising turns of plot that keep you on your toes - but very few of them create a lasting emotional impact. Throughout reading these individual stories, I envisioned Liu thinking 'oh, this could be a really cool *insert magical realism device or un..more
An amazing collection of Ken Liu's shorter work that is always moving but often harrowing, and at its most disturbing when he turns his beautiful prose to historical events.
This collection includes the brilliant 'Mono No Aware', set on a lightsail spaceship fleeing a destroyed Earth and the emotionally gutting 'The Paper Menagerie', dealing with the relationship a half-Chinese man has with his Chinese mother. Both of these are Hugo winners, but they're far from the only brilliant stories in the..more
Feb 19, 2016Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked itThis collection includes the brilliant 'Mono No Aware', set on a lightsail spaceship fleeing a destroyed Earth and the emotionally gutting 'The Paper Menagerie', dealing with the relationship a half-Chinese man has with his Chinese mother. Both of these are Hugo winners, but they're far from the only brilliant stories in the..more
Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, own, read2016, goodreads-giveaway, short-stories
I will keep track of notes of the stories as I go since I'm reading this between other things.
The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species
More about storytelling and how our sense of being informs how we save and tell stories, I know I've read this one before. The ideas are very imaginative.
State Change
What if your soul were a cigarette box, or an ice cube? What happens when you smoke the last one or the ice melts?
The Perfect Match
The dangers of what we trade for our privacy. This was a bit preachy b..more
The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species
More about storytelling and how our sense of being informs how we save and tell stories, I know I've read this one before. The ideas are very imaginative.
State Change
What if your soul were a cigarette box, or an ice cube? What happens when you smoke the last one or the ice melts?
The Perfect Match
The dangers of what we trade for our privacy. This was a bit preachy b..more
Jul 07, 2016Manuel Antão rated it it was amazing
If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.
Mono No Aware: 'The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories' by Ken Liu
After finishing 'The Three-Body Problem', I was curious to know more about Ken Liu, the book's translator. And I picked up this collection. I've always thought short fiction is harder to write than longer works. And what a choice it was. Not all of the stories are clear winners, but the ones that are, oh my.
When I'm driving and the sun sets over the huge fields around me..more
Mono No Aware: 'The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories' by Ken Liu
After finishing 'The Three-Body Problem', I was curious to know more about Ken Liu, the book's translator. And I picked up this collection. I've always thought short fiction is harder to write than longer works. And what a choice it was. Not all of the stories are clear winners, but the ones that are, oh my.
When I'm driving and the sun sets over the huge fields around me..more
Despite a shaky start — a thoughtful story that’s a tad too clinical for my liking — this collection blew me away. Ken Liu talks in the preface about prizing the logic of metaphors and you can see how carefully he prizes that in his stories. Nearly every one works on multiple levels without feeling heavy handed. Some stories he manages to write historical fiction that’s somehow science fiction at the same time, others are straight ahead sci-fi thrillers that could easily warrant an entire book...more
Nov 10, 2017Lata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: poc-author, scifi-fantasy, poc-actor, x2017-read, favourites
I loved this collection of stories. Beautiful prose, interesting ideas, and at times deeply sad. Ken Liu is clearly adept at a number of styles and subgenres; the collection ranges from coming of age to mystery to time travel to others. I was particularly moved by “The Paper Menagerie” story; it was wonderful and made me teary.
I listened to this, and enjoyed the the use of two narrators. (On a side note, I also listened to LeVar Burton's interpretation (on his LeVar Reads podcast) of “The Paper..more
I listened to this, and enjoyed the the use of two narrators. (On a side note, I also listened to LeVar Burton's interpretation (on his LeVar Reads podcast) of “The Paper..more
Aug 29, 2017Netta rated it it was amazing
Short stories are not my cup of tea. Usually I stumble upon the collection containing few pure gems and plenty of minor things which I find neither charming nor representative. Hence I finally drew the conclusion that I should never begin the acquaintance with a new author with short stories, setting them aside till I’m sure their creator and me are getting on. Ken Liu is an exeption in this regard and exceptional in every other.
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a collection of poignant..more
Jan 24, 2013Alex rated it it was ok · review of another editionThe Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a collection of poignant..more
Recommends it for: people who post inspirational stories about kittens on their Facebook feeds
This sounds to me like something a college sophomore would write because he's like 'If I write about my heritage and sad dead mom my creative writing professor pretty much has to give me an A, right?' And when he reads it in class everyone says it's great because emotions, man, except that one sortof bitchy darkhaired girl who listens to a lot of Tori Amos and everybody hates her except you, you kindof have a crush on her, and in fact next year you will have a brief, disappointing relationship w..more
Jun 07, 2015ᴥ Irena ᴥ rated it liked it · review of another edition
I don't remember when I read this. I do remember the overwhelming sadness it left behind though.
This is a short story about a boy whose mother is a mail order bride from Hong Kong. It is also a story of prejudices and a boy's shame. He wished her to be the same as everyone around them.
It would take years for the collection of origami animals made by his mother when he was a child to come alive and give him a special message. Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
Jun 14, 2012Maggie rated it it was amazing · review of another editionThis is a short story about a boy whose mother is a mail order bride from Hong Kong. It is also a story of prejudices and a boy's shame. He wished her to be the same as everyone around them.
It would take years for the collection of origami animals made by his mother when he was a child to come alive and give him a special message. Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
Shelves: notable-asian-character, 2012, reviewed, asian-american-authors, dawson-leery-cried, i-ve-just-read-you-and-i-love-you
Well, this short story made me cry more in 15 pages than any other book I've read this year -- except for Patrick Ness's gut punches masquerading as books. This story of the Chinese-American son of a mail order bride who learns of his otherness from cruel neighborhood kids and begins to resent the source of his difference, his mother, was heartbreaking, poignant, and familiar. It reminded me of all the times my brother and I would refuse to eat with chopsticks or speak Korean, how we demanded na..more
Aug 18, 2015Bob Milne rated it liked it Shelves: steampunk, fantasy-historical, alternate-history
As much as I wanted to love The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I have to be honest in that I only thought it was okay. I mean, I can see how these stories established a reputation for Ken Liu, and there’s no doubt that some of them are indeed award worthy, but I didn’t connect with nearly as many as I would have liked.
Before you start getting disappointed, however, let me say that I blame the format, not necessarily the content. I’ve always been drawn to doorstopper fantasy novels like The G..more
Jun 17, 2012Ruby Tombstone [With A Vengeance] rated it really liked it · review of another editionBefore you start getting disappointed, however, let me say that I blame the format, not necessarily the content. I’ve always been drawn to doorstopper fantasy novels like The G..more
Shelves: youre-living-in-a-fantasy-man, east-and-south-east-asia
Oh, this is gut-wrenching. Magical and gut-wrenching. It's a very short story, but packs a huge punch. Just please take a few minutes to read this 2011 Nebula Award winning story. I promise you it's worth it. And have some tissues handy.
PDF version can be read online here: http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/1902..
PDF version can be read online here: http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/1902..
Dec 30, 2015Andreas rated it it was amazing
Review at my blog.
Merged review:
This is only a summary of the full reviews of the stories in this collection, which you'll find at my blog.
I've previously read Lius's story The Regular and his last year's novel The Grace of Kings. Both make me think that this could be a must-read. I went first to the eponymous story The Paper Menagerie and after a couple of stories, I realized the author's diversity in style and topics: I became a fan of this author, as you'll never get bored, be it tin-foiled s..more
Merged review:
This is only a summary of the full reviews of the stories in this collection, which you'll find at my blog.
I've previously read Lius's story The Regular and his last year's novel The Grace of Kings. Both make me think that this could be a must-read. I went first to the eponymous story The Paper Menagerie and after a couple of stories, I realized the author's diversity in style and topics: I became a fan of this author, as you'll never get bored, be it tin-foiled s..more
Dec 14, 2018Mizuki rated it it was ok
It is more of a 2.5 stars rating. If nothing else, this book is a huge improvement over the godawful The Grace of Kings ripoff crap by the same author.
Furthermore, I am actually glad that readers might learn a bit more about modern Chinese history, traditional cultures and practices; but honestly as a Chinese, this Ken Liu guy didn't tell me anything I don't know or help me to look at things with a new angle. What a disappointment.
Even worse, I don't get along with any of the Sci-Fi stuff he wr..more
Furthermore, I am actually glad that readers might learn a bit more about modern Chinese history, traditional cultures and practices; but honestly as a Chinese, this Ken Liu guy didn't tell me anything I don't know or help me to look at things with a new angle. What a disappointment.
Even worse, I don't get along with any of the Sci-Fi stuff he wr..more
Mar 04, 2012Traveller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This is a short story.
Incredibly sad.. I started crying halfway through and was bawling by the end. It felt so true and I love Liu's voice. I'll definitely be looking out for more Liu in the future.
Apr 03, 2019ashley c rated it it was amazingIncredibly sad.. I started crying halfway through and was bawling by the end. It felt so true and I love Liu's voice. I'll definitely be looking out for more Liu in the future.
Shelves: fantasy, my-darlings, asian-lit, science-fiction, short-stories
The irony didn't escape me that after years of distancing myself from my Chinese roots, I am gently eased back into them the same way you would ease an American into Asian literature. Which is what Ken Liu set out to do. He marries Asian literature into popular Western genres of fantasy and science-fiction, keeping it accessible to everyone through crowd-pleasing stories and legends not just from East Asia, but also from Asian-American roots, while firmly not deviating from the authenticity of t..more
Jul 02, 2016Michelle Curie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: fantasy, short-stories, science-fiction, favorites
'We are defined by the places we hold in the web of other's lives.'
This was, without a doubt, the best collection of short stories I have read. Ever. I consider short stories a rather tricky business: sometimes they feel mundane, too repetitive, too unsolved. In this anthology, Ken Liu shares fifteen thoroughly wonderful tales that take us from Outer Space to Japan during World War II.
A master of his own kind:
I can't even remember how I found out about Ken Liu and I have not read a single sto..more
This was, without a doubt, the best collection of short stories I have read. Ever. I consider short stories a rather tricky business: sometimes they feel mundane, too repetitive, too unsolved. In this anthology, Ken Liu shares fifteen thoroughly wonderful tales that take us from Outer Space to Japan during World War II.
A master of his own kind:
I can't even remember how I found out about Ken Liu and I have not read a single sto..more
May 29, 2017Vicky N. rated it it was amazing
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is a collection of 15 short stories by writer Ken Liu. In this collection there's composed mostly of speculative fiction you can also find Magical Realism and Alternate History. They are all very rich stories of Chinese culture and Asian Mythology.
Each story is different than the one before it and the next one. They are all gripping and incredibly narrated.
Some of my favorites in no particular order are:
* The Paper Menagerie: The story that gives the name to..more
Each story is different than the one before it and the next one. They are all gripping and incredibly narrated.
Some of my favorites in no particular order are:
* The Paper Menagerie: The story that gives the name to..more
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Ken Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. He has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, as well as top genre honors in Japan, Spain, and France, among other places.
Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers play the role of wizards. His debut collection, The Paper..more
Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers play the role of wizards. His debut collection, The Paper..more
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“Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.
And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.
Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?
We live for such miracles.” — 78 likes
And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.
Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?
We live for such miracles.”
“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation.” — 56 likes
More quotes…Unit 731
Unit 731 | |
---|---|
Location | Pingfang, China |
Coordinates | |
Date | 1935–1945 |
Attack type | Human experimentation Biological warfare Chemical warfare |
Weapons | Biological weapons Chemical weapons Explosives |
Deaths | Over 3,000 from inside experiments and tens of thousands from field experiments |
Perpetrators | GeneralShirō Ishii Lt. GeneralMasaji Kitano Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department |
Unit 731(Japanese: 731部隊Hepburn: Nana-san-ichi Butai) was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) of World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japan. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China).
It was officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army(関東軍防疫給水部本部Kantōgun Bōeki Kyūsuibu Honbu). Originally set up under the Kempeitaimilitary police of the Empire of Japan, Unit 731 was taken over and commanded until the end of the war by General Shiro Ishii, an officer in the Kwantung Army. The facility itself was built between 1934 and 1939 and officially adopted the name 'Unit 731' in 1941.
Between 3,000 and 250,000[1] men, women, and children[2][3]—from which around 600 every year were provided by the Kempeitai[4]—died during the human experimentation conducted by Unit 731 at the camp based in Pingfang alone, which does not include victims from other medical experimentation sites, such as Unit 100.[5]
Unit 731 veterans of Japan attest that most of the victims they experimented on were Chinese, Koreans and Mongolians.[6] Almost 70% of the victims who died in the Pingfang camp were Chinese, including both civilian and military.[7] Close to 30% of the victims were Russian.[8] Some others were South East Asians and Pacific Islanders, at the time colonies of the Empire of Japan, and a small number of Alliedprisoners of war.[9] The unit received generous support from the Japanese government up to the end of the war in 1945. The Nazis and Japanese conspired in their experimental efforts.
Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involved in Unit 731 were given immunity by the U.S. in exchange for their data on human experimentation.[10] Some were arrested by Soviet forces and tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949. Americans did not try the researchers so that the information and experience gained in bio-weapons could be co-opted into the U.S. biological warfare program.[11] On 6 May 1947, Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, wrote to Washington that 'additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence.'[10] Victim accounts were then largely ignored or dismissed in the West as Communist propaganda.[12]
Building on the site of the Harbin bioweapon facility of Unit 731
- Formation1
- Activities2
- Vivisection2.1
- Germ warfare attacks2.2
- Frostbite testing2.3
- Rape, syphilis and forced pregnancy2.4
- Weapons testing2.5
- Other experiments2.6
- Biological warfare3
- Known unit members4
- Divisions5
- Facilities6
- Tokyo6.1
- Guangzhou6.2
- Related units6.3
- Surrender and immunity7
- Destruction of evidence7.1
- American grant of immunity7.2
- Separate Soviet trials7.3
- After World War II8
- Official silence under Occupation8.1
- Post-Occupation Japanese media coverage and debate8.2
- Official government response in Japan8.3
- Abroad8.4
- Books8.4.1
- Films8.4.2
- Music8.4.3
- Television8.4.4
- See also9
- Pacific War (World War II)9.1
- Other human experimentation9.2
- References10
- Further reading11
- External links12
Formation
In 1932, General Chikahiko Koizumi, who later became Japan's Health Minister from 1941 to 1945. Koizumi had joined a secret poison gas research committee in 1915, during World War I, when he and other Japanese army officers were impressed by the successful German use of chlorine gas at the second battle of Ypres, where the Allies suffered 15,000 casualties as a result of the chemical attack.[13]
Unit Tōgō was implemented in the Zhongma Fortress, a prison/experimentation camp in Beiyinhe, a village 100 km (62 mi) south of Harbin on the South Manchurian Railway. A jailbreak in autumn 1934 and later explosion (believed to be an attack) in 1935 led Ishii to shut down Zhongma Fortress. He received the authorization to move to Pingfang, approximately 24 km (15 mi) south of Harbin, to set up a new and much larger facility.[14]
In 1936, Hirohito authorized, by imperial decree, the expansion of this unit and its integration into the Kwantung Army as the Epidemic Prevention Department.[15] It was divided at the same time into the 'Ishii Unit' and 'Wakamatsu Unit' with a base in Hsinking. From August 1940, all these units were known collectively as the 'Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army (関東軍防疫給水部本部)'[16] or 'Unit 731' (満州第731部隊) for short.
Activities
Weapons of mass destruction |
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By type |
By country |
Proliferation |
Treaties |
A special project code-named Maruta used human beings for experiments. Test subjects were gathered from the surrounding population and were sometimes referred to euphemistically as 'logs' (丸太maruta), used in such contexts as 'How many logs fell?'. This term originated as a joke on the part of the staff because the official cover story for the facility given to the local authorities was that it was a lumber mill. However, in an account by a man who worked as a 'junior uniformed civilian employee' of the Japanese Army in Unit 731, the project was internally called 'Holzklotz', which is the German word for maruta.[17]
The test subjects were selected to give a wide cross-section of the population and included common criminals, captured bandits and anti-Japanese partisans, political prisoners, and also people rounded up by the Kempeitai for alleged 'suspicious activities'. They included infants, the elderly, and pregnant women.
Vivisection
Prisoners, including one known POW,[18] were subjected to
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- The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)—The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
- History of the Unit 731 UNIT 731 information site.
- History of Japan's biological weapons program—The Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
- History of United States' biological weapons program—The Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
- Unit 731, Nightmare in Manchuria, a World Justice documentary, Video on YouTube
- Unit 731: Auschwitz of the East at the Wayback Machine (archived October 24, 2007)—AII POW-MIA images.
- Army Doctor—a firsthand account by Yuasa Ken.
- Theodicy - through the Case of 'Unit 731' by Eun Park (2003).
- US paid for Japanese human germ warfare data, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News Online.
- Japan's sins of the past by Justin McCurry (2004), The Guardian.
- The Asian Auschwitz of Unit 731 by Shane Green (2002), The Age.
- War Crimes: Never Forget—review of the book Unit 731 by Peter Williams and David Wallace
External links
- Barenblatt, Daniel. A Plague Upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan's Germ Warfare Operation, HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN 0-06-018625-9.
- Barnaby, Wendy. The Plague Makers: The Secret World of Biological Warfare, Frog Ltd, 1999. ISBN 1-883319-85-4, ISBN 0-7567-5698-7, ISBN 0-8264-1258-0, ISBN 0-8264-1415-X.
- Cook, Haruko Taya; Cook, Theodore F., Japan at war: an oral history, New York: New Press: Distributed by Norton, 1992. ISBN 1-56584-014-3. Cf. Part 2, Chapter 6 on Unit 731 and Tamura Yoshio.
- Endicott, Stephen and Hagerman, Edward. The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea, Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-253-33472-1.
- Gold, Hal. Unit 731 Testimony, Charles E Tuttle Co., 1996. ISBN 4-900737-39-9.
- Grunden, Walter E., Secret Weapons & World War II: Japan in the Shadow of Big Science, University Press of Kansas, 2005. ISBN 0-7006-1383-8.
- Handelman, Stephen and Alibek, Ken. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World—Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It, Random House, 1999. ISBN 0-375-50231-9, ISBN 0-385-33496-6.
- Harris, Robert and Paxman, Jeremy. A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Random House, 2002. ISBN 0-8129-6653-8.
- Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932–45 and the American Cover-Up, Routledge, 1994. ISBN 0-415-09105-5, ISBN 0-415-93214-9.
- Lupis, Marco. Orrori e misteri dell'Unità 731: la 'fabbrica' dei batteri killer, La Repubblica, 14 aprile 2003, on line too.
- Mangold, Tom; Goldberg, Jeff, Plague wars: a true story of biological warfare, Macmillan, 2000. Cf. Chapter 3, Unit 731.
- Moreno, Jonathan D. Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans, Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-92835-4.
- Nie, Jing Bao, et al. Japan's Wartime Medical Atrocities: Comparative Inquiries in Science, History, and Ethics (2011) excerpt and text search
- Williams, Peter. Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II, Free Press, 1989. ISBN 0-02-935301-7.
Further reading
- ^Japan unearths site linked to human experiments. Some historians estimate up to 250,000 people were subjected to experiments., http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/21/japan-excavates-site-human-experiments
- ^ abDavid C. Rapoport. 'Terrorism and Weapons of the Apocalypse'. In James M. Ludes, Henry Sokolski (eds.), Twenty-First Century Weapons Proliferation: Are We Ready? Routledge, 2001. pp. 19, 29
- ^Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Biological Weapons, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950. p. 117
- ^Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, Westviewpress, 1996, p.138
- ^The Imperial Japanese Medical Atrocities and Its Enduring Legacy in Japanese Research Ethics
- ^ abKristof, Nicholar D. (17 March 1995). 'Unmasking Horror — A special report. Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity'. New York Times.
- ^AII The War Crime 'Unit 731' and Chinese, Korean Civilian. ci
- ^, 1981The Devil's GluttonySeiichi Morimura,
- ^The devil unit, Unit 731. 731部隊について
- ^ abcHal 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 edn. Routledge, New York, USA.
- ^The World: Revisiting World War II Atrocities; Comparing the Unspeakable to the Unthinkable. New York Times
- ^Williams, Peter, and Wallace, David (1989). Unit 731. Grafton Books, p. 44. ISBN 0-586-20822-4
- ^Harris, Sheldon H. (1994). Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up. California State University, Northridge: Routledge. pp. 26–33.
- ^Daniel Barenblat, A plague upon humanity, 2004, p.37.
- ^Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, 1996, p.136
- ^Cook, Haruko Taya; Cook, Theodore F. (1992). Japan at war : an oral history (1 ed.). New York, NY: New Press. p. 162.
- ^One known case of US POWS used in experiments were a B-29 crew captured May 5, 1945
- ^ abRichard Lloyd Parry (February 25, 2007). 'Dissect them alive: order not to be disobeyed'. London: Times Online.
- ^Interview with former Unit 731 member Nobuo Kamada at the Wayback Machine (archived November 19, 2006)
- ^Nicholas D. Kristof New York Times, March 17, 1995. 'Unmasking Horror: A special report. Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity'
- ^'Vivisectionist recalls his day of reckoning'
- ^Unit 731: One of the Most Terrifying Secrets of the 20th Century
- ^Christopher Hudson (2 March 2007). 'Doctors of Depravity'. Daily Mail.
- ^Video adapted from 'Biological Warfare & Terrorism: The Military and Public Health Response', Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 21, 2007
- ^Barenblatt, Daniel. A Plague Upon Humanity: the Secret Genocide of Axis Japan's Germ Warfare Operation, HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN 0-06-018625-9
- ^Kristof, Nicholas D. “Unmasking Horror -- A special report.; Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity” The New York Times(1995)
- ^Baader, Gerhard, Susan E. Lederer, Morris Low, Florian Schmaltz, and Alexander V. Schwerin. “Pathways to Human Experimentation, 1933-1945: Germany, Japan, and the United States.” Osiris (2005): 205-231.
- ^E. Cuerda-Galindo, X. Sierra-Valentí, E. González-López, and F. López-Muñoz, 'Syphilis and Human Experimentation From the First Appearance of the Disease to World War II: A Historical Perspective and Reflections on Ethics,' Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (English Edition) 105, no. 8 (2014): 765-67.
- ^Monchinski, Tony (2008). Critical Pedagogy and the Everyday Classroom. Volumen 3 de Explorations of Educational Purpose. Springer, p. 57. ISBN 1402084625
- ^Neuman, William Lawrence (2008). Understanding Research. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, p. 65. ISBN 0205471536
- ^'The Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731'. Advocacy & Intelligence Index For POWs-MIAs Archives. 2001. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
- ^Biological Weapons Program-Japan Federation of American Scientists
- ^Review of the studies on Germ Warfare Tien-wei Wu A Preliminary Review of Studies of Japanese Biological Warfare and Unit 731 in the United States
- ^Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity, 2004, p.xii, 173.
- ^Sheldon Harris, Factories of Death (London, Routledge, 1994)
- ^Naomi Baumslag, Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus, 2005, p.207
- ^'Weapons of Mass Destruction: Plague as Biological Weapons Agent'. GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
- ^Amy Stewart (April 25, 2011). 'Where To Find The World's Most 'Wicked Bugs': Fleas'. National Public Radio.
- ^Russell Working (June 5, 2001). 'The trial of Unit 731'. The Japan Times.
- ^Associated Press, 'Work starts at Shinjuku Unit 731 site', Japan Times, 22 February 2011, p. 1.
- ^The Economist, 'Deafening silence', 24 February 2011, p. 48.
- ^Gold, Hal. Unit 731: Testimony. Tuttle Publishing, 2006, p. 50
- ^Gold, Hal (2011). Unit 731 Testimony. (1st ed.). New York: Tuttle Pub. pp. 94–95.
- ^Gold, Hal (2011). Unit 731 Testimony. (1st ed.). New York: Tuttle Pub. p. 96.
- ^Gold, Hal (2011). Unit 731 Testimony. (1st ed.). New York: Tuttle Pub. p. 97.
- ^Kyodo News, 'Occupation censored Unit 731 ex-members' mail: secret paper', Japan Times, February 10, 2010, p. 3.
- ^BBC News - Unit 731: Japan's biological force.
- ^Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950). (French language: Documents relatifs au procès des anciens Militaires de l'Armée Japonaise accusés d'avoir préparé et employé l'Arme Bactériologique / Japanese language: 細菌戦用兵器ノ準備及ビ使用ノ廉デ起訴サレタ元日本軍軍人ノ事件ニ関スル公判書類 / Chinese language: 前日本陸軍軍人因準備和使用細菌武器被控案審判材料)
- ^Takashi Tsuchiya. 'The Imperial Japanese Experiments in China'. The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics, pp, 35, 42. Oxford University Press, 2011.
- ^Ken Alibek and S. Handelman. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World - Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it. 1999. Delta (2000) ISBN 0-385-33496-6.
- ^日本弁護士連合会『人権白書昭和43年版』日本弁護士連合会、1968年、pp.126-134
- ^日本弁護士連合会『人権白書昭和43年版』日本弁護士連合会、1968年、pp.134-136;高杉晋吾『七三一部隊細菌戦の医師を追え』徳間書店、1982年、pp.94-111; 保護施設収容者に対する人権擁護に関する件(決議)
- ^Nozaki, Yoshiko (2000). Textbook controversy and the production of public truth: Japanese education, nationalism, and Saburo Ienaga's court challenges. University of Wisconsin--Madison. pp. 300, 381.
- ^Keiichi Tsuneishi (1995). 『七三一部隊 生物兵器犯罪の真実』 講談社現代新書. p. 171.
- ^田辺敏雄 『検証 旧日本軍の「悪行」―歪められた歴史像を見直す』 自由社 ISBN 4915237362
- ^needs citation
- ^Yoshiko Nozaki and Mark Selden, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 'Japanese Textbook Controversies, Nationalism, and Historical Memory: Intra- and Inter-national Conflicts'
- ^Kathleen Woods Masalski (November 2001). 'EXAMINING THE JAPANESE HISTORY TEXTBOOK CONTROVERSIES'. Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
- ^Asahi Shinbun editorial, August 30, 1997
- ^「衆議院議員川田悦子君提出七三一部隊等の旧帝国陸軍防疫給水部に関する質問に対する答弁書」 October 10, 2003.
- ^Alexander Street Press, Academic Video Store 731: Two Versions of Hell
References
Other human experimentation
Pacific War (World War II)
See also
- The X-Files episode '731' (1995). Former members of Unit 731 secretly continue their experiments on humans under control of a covert U.S. government agency.
- ReGenesis episode 'Let it burn' (2007). Outbreaks of anthrax and glanders are traced to World War II Japan.
- 'Warehouse 13' episode 'The 40th Floor' (2011). General Shoro Ishii's Medal from Unit 731 simulated drowning when applied to a victim's skin.
Television
- 'The Breeding House' (1994), Bruce Dickinson. Segment of the CD-single Tears of the Dragon, describing the atrocities committed by Unit 731 and the immunity granted by the Americans to the physicians of the Unit.
- 'Unit 731' (2009), American thrash metal band Slayer. Song on the album World Painted Blood, describing the events and atrocities that occurred at Unit 731.
Music
- Men Behind the Sun (1988), China, directed by Tun Fei Mou.
- Philosophy of a Knife (2008), Russia, directed by Andrey Iskanov.
- 731: Two Versions of Hell (2007), produced by James T. Hong; documentary about Unit 731 told from the Chinese and Japanese sides.[62]
There have been several films about the atrocities of Unit 731.
Films
- Forest sea (pol.Leśne morze) (1960) a novel by a Polish writer and educator Igor Newerly. The first book outside Asia which refers to atrocities committed in the Unit.
Books
Abroad
In October 2003, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan filed an inquiry. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi responded that the Japanese government did not then possess any records related to Unit 731, but the government recognized the gravity of the matter and would publicize any records that were located in the future.[61]
In 1997, the international lawyer Kōnen Tsuchiya filed a class action suit against the Japanese government, demanding reparations for the actions of Unit 731, using evidence filed by Professor Makoto Ueda of Rikkyo University. All Japanese court levels found that the suit was baseless. No findings of fact were made about the existence of human experimentation, but the decision of the court was that reparations are determined by international treaties and not by national court cases.
Unit 731
Japanese history textbooks usually contain references to Unit 731, but do not go into detail about allegations, in accordance with this principle.[58][59]Saburo Ienaga's New History of Japan included a detailed description, based on officers' testimony. The Ministry for Education attempted to remove this passage from his textbook before it was taught in public schools, on the basis that the testimony was insufficient. The Supreme Court of Japan ruled in 1997 that the testimony was indeed sufficient and that requiring it to be removed was an illegal violation of freedom of speech.[60]
Since the end of the Allied occupation, the Japanese government has repeatedly apologized for its pre-war behavior in general, but specific apologies and indemnities are determined on the basis of bilateral determination that crimes occurred, which requires a high standard of evidence. Unit 731 presents a special problem, since unlike Nazi human experimentation which the U.S. publicly condemned, the activities of Unit 731 are known to the general public only from the testimonies of willing former unit members, and testimony cannot be employed to determine indemnity in this way. The American retrieval of the highly documented experimentations of Unit 731 is covert and not something either the U.S. or Japan are willing to admit has happened in the first place. The Nazis and Japanese collaborated in their experiments.[57]
Official government response in Japan
The author Morimura Seiichi published The Devil's Gluttony (悪魔の飽食) in 1981, followed by The Devil's Gluttony: A Sequel in 1983. These books purported to reveal the 'true' operations of Unit 731, but actually confused them with that of Unit 100, and falsely used unrelated photos attributing them to Unit 731, which raised questions about its accuracy.[54][55] Also in 1981 appeared the first direct testimony of human vivisection in China, by Ken Yuasa. Since then many more in-depth testimonies have appeared in Japanese. The 2001 documentary Japanese Devils was composed largely of interviews with 14 members of Unit 731 who had been taken as prisoners by China and later released.[56]
Japanese discussions of Unit 731's activity began in the 1950s, after the end of the American occupation of Japan. In 1952, human experiments carried out in Nagoya City Pediatric Hospital, which resulted in one death, were publicly tied to former members of Unit 731.[53] Later in that decade, journalists suspected that the murders attributed by the government to Sadamichi Hirasawa were actually carried out by members of Unit 731. In 1958, Japanese author Shusaku Endo published the book The Sea and Poison about human experimentation, which is thought to have been based on a real incident.
Post-Occupation Japanese media coverage and debate
As above, under the American occupation the members of Unit 731 and other experimental units were allowed to go free. One graduate of Unit 1644, Masami Kitaoka, continued to do experiments on unwilling Japanese subjects from 1947 to 1956 while working for Japan's National Institute of Health Sciences. He infected prisoners with rickettsia and mental health patients with typhus.[52]
Official silence under Occupation
After World War II
After World War II, the Soviet Union built a biological weapons facility in Sverdlovsk using documentation captured from Unit 731 in Manchuria.[51] Australia army sword drill manual.
The trial of those captured Japanese perpetrators was held in Khabarovsk in December 1949. A lengthy partial transcript of the trial proceedings was published in different languages the following year by a Moscow foreign languages press, including an English language edition.[49] The lead prosecuting attorney at the Khabarovsk trial was Lev Smirnov, who had been one of the top Soviet prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials. The Japanese doctors and army commanders who had perpetrated the Unit 731 experiments received sentences from the Khabarovsk court ranging from two to 25 years in a Siberianlabor camp. The U.S. refused to acknowledge the trials, branding them communist propaganda.[50]
Although publicly silent on the issue at the Tokyo Trials, the Soviet Union pursued the case and prosecuted twelve top military leaders and scientists from Unit 731 and its affiliated biological-war prisons Unit 1644 in Nanjing, and Unit 100 in Changchun, in the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. Included among those prosecuted for war crimes, including germ warfare, was General Otozō Yamada, the commander-in-chief of the million-man Kwantung Army occupying Manchuria.
Separate Soviet trials
The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal heard only one reference to Japanese experiments with 'poisonous serums' on Chinese civilians. This took place in August 1946 and was instigated by David Sutton, assistant to the Chinese prosecutor. The Japanese defense counsel argued that the claim was vague and uncorroborated and it was dismissed by the tribunal president, Sir William Webb, for lack of evidence. The subject was not pursued further by Sutton, who was probably unaware of Unit 731's activities. His reference to it at the trial is believed to have been accidental.
Among the individuals in Japan after their 1945 surrender was Lieutenant Colonel Murray Sanders, who arrived in Yokohama via the American ship Sturgess in September 1945. Sanders was a highly regarded microbiologist and a member of America's military center for biological weapons. Sanders’ duty was to investigate Japanese biological warfare activity. At the time of his arrival in Japan he had no knowledge of what Unit 731 was.[44] Until Sanders finally threatened the Japanese with bringing communism into the picture, little information about biological warfare was being shared with the Americans. The Japanese wanted to avoid the Soviet legal system so the next morning after the threat Sanders received a manuscript describing Japan's involvement in biological warfare.[45] Sanders took this information to General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers responsible for rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupations. MacArthur struck a deal with Japanese informants[46]—he secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731, including their leader, in exchange for providing America, but not the other wartime allies, with their research on biological warfare and data from human experimentation.[10] American occupation authorities monitored the activities of former unit members, including reading and censoring their mail.[47] The U.S. believed that the research data was valuable. The U.S. did not want other nations, particularly the Soviet Union, to acquire data on biological weapons.[48]
American grant of immunity
Skeleton crews of Ishii's Japanese troops blew up the compound in the final days of the war to destroy evidence of their activities, but most were so well constructed that they survived somewhat intact.
Ishii ordered every member of the group 'to take the secret to the grave', threatening to find them if they failed, and prohibiting any of them from going into public work back in Japan. Potassium cyanide vials were issued for use in the event that the remaining personnel were captured.
With the Soviet invasion of Manchukuo and Mengjiang in August 1945, the unit had to abandon their work in haste. The members and their families fled to Japan.
Destruction of evidence
Operations and experiments continued until the end of the war. Ishii had wanted to use biological weapons in the Pacific War since May 1944, but his attempts were repeatedly snubbed.
Surrender and immunity
Unit 731 was part of the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department which dealt with contagious disease and water supply generally.
Related units
The related Unit 8604 was operated by the Japanese Southern China Area Army and stationed at Guangzhou (Canton). This installation conducted human experimentation in food and water deprivation as well as water-borne typhus. According to postwar testimony, this facility served as the main rat breeding farm for the medical units to provide them with bubonic plague vectors for experiments.[43]
Guangzhou
China requested DNA samples from any human remains discovered at the site. The Japanese government—which has never officially acknowledged the atrocities committed by Unit 731—rejected the request.[42]
A medical school and research facility belonging to Unit 731 operated in the Shinjuku District of Tokyo during World War II. In 2006, Toyo Ishii—a nurse who worked at the school during the war—revealed that she had helped bury bodies and pieces of bodies on the school's grounds shortly after Japan's surrender in 1945. In response, in February 2011 the Ministry of Health began to excavate the site.[41]
Tokyo
Some of Unit 731's satellite facilities are in use by various Chinese industrial concerns. A portion has been preserved and is open to visitors as a War Crimes Museum.
The Unit 731 complex covered six square kilometers and consisted of more than 150 buildings. The design of the facilities made them hard to destroy by bombing. The complex contained various factories. It had around 4,500 containers to be used to raise fleas, six cauldrons to produce various chemicals, and around 1,800 containers to produce biological agents. Approximately 30 kg of bubonic plague bacteria could be produced in several days.
Facilities
- Division 1: Research on bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax, typhoid and tuberculosis using live human subjects. For this purpose, a prison was constructed to contain around three to four hundred people.
- Division 2: Research for biological weapons used in the field, in particular the production of devices to spread germs and parasites.
- Division 3: Production of shells containing biological agents. Stationed in Harbin.
- Division 4: Production of other miscellaneous agents.
- Division 5: Training of personnel.
- Divisions 6–8: Equipment, medical and administrative units.
Unit 731 was divided into eight divisions:
Divisions
- Lieutenant General Shirō Ishii
- Lieutenant Colonel Ryoichi Naito, founder of the pharmaceutical company Green Cross
Known unit members
During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.[37][38][39][40]
In 2002, Changde, China, site of the flea spraying attack, held an 'International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare' which estimated that at least 580,000 people died as a result of the attack.[35] The historian Sheldon Harris claims that 200,000 died.[36] In addition to Chinese casualties, 1,700 Japanese in Chekiang were killed by their own biological weapons while attempting to unleash the biological agent, which indicates serious issues with distribution.[2]
These bombs enabled Japanese soldiers to launch biological attacks, infecting agriculture, reservoirs, wells, and other areas with anthrax, plague-carrier fleas, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and other deadly pathogens. During biological bomb experiments, researchers dressed in protective suits would examine the dying victims. Infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by airplane into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. In addition, poisoned food and candies were given out to unsuspecting victims, and the results examined.
Japanese researchers performed tests on prisoners with Bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, and other diseases.[33] This research led to the development of the defoliation bacilli bomb and the flea bomb used to spread bubonic plague.[34] Some of these bombs were designed with porcelain shells, an idea proposed by Ishii in 1938.
An unidentified victim of Unit 731 human experimentation.
Biological warfare
In other tests, subjects were deprived of food and water to determine the length of time until death; placed into high-pressure chambers until death; experimented upon to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and human survival; placed into centrifuges and spun until death; injected with animal blood; exposed to lethal doses of x-rays; subjected to various chemical weapons inside gas chambers; injected with sea water to determine if it could be a substitute for saline solution; and burned or buried alive.[32]
Other experiments
Human targets were used to test grenades positioned at various distances and in different positions. Flame throwers were tested on humans. Humans were tied to stakes and used as targets to test germ-releasing bombs, chemical weapons, and explosive bombs.[30][31]
Weapons testing
Women were used in specific experiments in Unit 731. In order to respond to the growing threat of syphilis among Japanese troops, “among whom the prevalence of syphilis was high due to the systematic rape of women and the widespread use of sex slaves,” women at Unit 731 were either raped or infected with a serum containing virulent strains of syphilis.[29] In documentation of these experiments, doctors remarked that syphilitic infection of the women was the result of self-perpetuated prostitution, rather than the serum that had been administered to them. External reactions—change in skin and organ appearance—as well as internal changes were studied. In the case of the body’s internal reaction to infection, patients were vivisected or killed with autopsies being conducted immediately afterward. Forced pregnancy was also used to determine the effects of vertical transmission of the disease.
Rape, syphilis and forced pregnancy
Some Japanese justify their experiments with 'a discovery of a new treatment methodology for frostbite,' made possible by the human experimentation conducted in Unit 731. Japan intended to prepare to battle the looming threat of the Soviet Union, which “meant that the Japanese military had to be ready to treat large numbers of its soldiers for frostbite'. So physiologist Yoshimura Hisato conducted experiments by taking captives outside, dipping various appendages into water, and allowing the limb to freeze. Once frozen, which testimony from a Japanese officer said 'was determined after the 'frozen arms, when struck with a short stick, emitted a sound resembling that which a board gives when it is struck',[27] ice was chipped away and the area doused in water. The effects of different water temperatures were tested by bludgeoning the victim to determine if any areas were still frozen. Variations of these tests in more gruesome forms were performed. However, the best way to treat frostbite, which is used today, was established to be by immersing the affected area in water with a temperature between 100–122 °F (38–50 °C). This method differed substantially from previous treatment of rubbing afflicted areas. The aim and breadth of this research was in response to the historical flaws of other colonial powers' attempts to invade Russia.[28]
Frostbite testing
Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development, and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in assaults against the Chinese populace (both civilian and military) throughout World War II. Plague-infested fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, coastal Ningbo in 1940, and Changde, Hunan Province, in 1941. This military aerial spraying killed thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics.[26]
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Plague fleas, infected clothing, and infected supplies encased in bombs were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed around and possibly more than 400,000 Chinese civilians.[24]Tularemia was tested on Chinese civilians.[25]
Prisoners were injected with inoculations of disease, disguised as vaccinations, to study their effects. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea, then studied. Prisoners were also repeatedly subject to rape by guards.[23]
Germ warfare attacks
Japanese army surgeon Ken Yuasa suggests that the practice of vivisection on human subjects (mostly Chinese Communists) was widespread even outside Unit 731,[6] estimating that at least 1,000 people were involved in the practice in mainland China.[22]
Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and the esophagus reattached to the intestines. Parts of the brain, lungs, liver, etc. were removed from some prisoners.[19]
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Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. Those limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite sides of the body. Some prisoners' limbs were frozen and amputated, while others had limbs frozen, then thawed to study the effects of the resultant untreated gangrene and rotting.
[21] The infected and vivisected prisoners included men, women, children, and infants, including pregnant women and their infants impregnated by Japanese surgeons.[20]
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