The Event
Beginning in the 1930s, Unit 731 was a research facility that's purpose was to develop biological weapons for germ warfare. It was built in the Pingfang district of Harbin, located in the state of Manchukuo in northeast China. [3] Very little is known about the early history of Unit 731. The Japanese Empire attended The Geneva convention of 1925 and agreed to the banning of germ warfare. [4] The facility was built in secret and the doctors were sworn to secrecy on pain of death. In September of 1931, Japan Invaded Manchuria, a province in Northeast China. Severe atrocities were committed against the Republic of China and were, for the most part, hushed up by the rest of the world. The Sino-Japanese war began in July of 1937 when Japan waged full-out war on China. [5] Their military was not satisfied and The United States was attacked on December 7, 1941, bringing both countries into the world's greatest armed struggle, World War II.
The atrocities that are the subject of this human rights violation took place between the years of 1941 and 1945. During this time the facility was commanded by the Japanese general Shiro Ishii; a man with no morals or any sense of what is right and wrong. While war raged in eastern China, scientists and doctors in Unit 731 requested human subjects for experimentation with germ warfare. All over China, prisoners of war and innocent civilians were rounded up and shipped to Unit 731 where they would be mercilessly experimented on. These victims were not even respected as human beings; they were referred to as "Maruta", or wooden logs and were treated as such. [2] One of the most truly horrifying and disturbing practices of the experimental researchers in the facility was vivisection of live patients without anesthesia. Vivisection is, in essence, dissection. The doctors would first infect their victim with a deadly disease. Infections such as the bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, and botulism were administered to prisoners and then left to run their course. [3] When the victims began dying, surgeons would strap them to the table and begin a vivisection. With a scalpel the victim would be sliced open from chest to groin without any pain medication for fear that it would affect the results. While the victim was still living, the doctors would inspect their internal organs, removing and studying the afflicted regions of the body. Eventually, after agonizing minutes under the surgeons knife, the prisoner would die. More surgeons would enter the room and finish the dissection, removing limbs and organs to be preserved in formaldehyde.
The Japanese did not do this out of cruelty. The sole purpose of the medical experiments was not torture. They wanted to create chemical weapons, biological bombs that could turn the tide of a war that they were losing. As the germ cultures and poison gasses were perfected in Unit 731, the United States of America was pressing the attack on Japan. The empire hoped that an epidemic in America would be a blow large enough to shatter the war effort. Before these attacks were executed, bio-bombs were tested on small villages and rural communities in China. Terrifying diseases were exposed to various parts of Manchuria. Their technology was not perfected and, along with the civilians and POWS, many of the scientists and doctors were exposed to disease. Japan never launched a full attack on The USA using their horrible new weapons. By the time the bombs were developed to the point of being used, it was too late for a direct attack. Japan was being bombed daily by American planes from Iwo Jima and Okinawa and after the Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Emperor of Japan surrendered and funding was cut from Unit 731. Before the facility died, the surviving 400 prisoners were led out and shot. All of the evidence was destroyed and all members of the staff sworn to secrecy. [2] Everything was swiftly covered up but all was not forgotten.