Unit 731, the forgotten holocaust.

This was the first female prisoner of Unit 731
and she was exposed alive to
phosphorus burn experiments

Unit 731 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) and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel. The number of people killed in Unit 731 is around 580,000. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin in Northeast China). More than 95% of the victims who died in the camp based in Pingfang were Chinese and Korean, including both civilian and military. The remaining 5% were South East Asians and Pacific Islanders, at the time colonies of the Empire of Japan, and a small number of the prisoners of war from the Allies of World War II.

Vivisected when alive pregnant woman and her baby

Test subjects were gathered from the surrounding population and were sometimes referred to euphemistically as “logs” Prisoners of war were subjected to vivisection without anaesthesia. Vivisections were performed on prisoners after infecting them with various diseases. Scientists performed invasive surgery on prisoners, removing organs to study the effects of disease on the human body. These were conducted while the patients were alive because it was feared that the decomposition process would affect the results. The infected and vivisected prisoners included men, women, children, and infants. 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. Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and the oesophagus reattached to the intestines. Parts of the brain, lungs, liver, etc. were removed from some prisoners. 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. 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 gonorrhoea, then studied. Prisoners were infested with fleas in order to acquire large quantities of disease-carrying fleas for the purposes of studying the viability of germ warfare. 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 400,000 Chinese civilians. Prisoners were subjected to other torturous experiments such as being hung upside down to see how long it would take for them to choke to death, having air injected into their arteries to determine the time until the onset of embolism, and having horse urine injected into their kidneys. Other incidents include being deprived of food and water to determine the length of time until death, being placed into high-pressure chambers until death, having experiments performed upon prisoners to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and human survival, being placed into centrifuges and spun until dead, having animal blood injected and the effects studied, being exposed to lethal doses of x-rays, having various chemical weapons tested on prisoners inside gas chambers, being injected with sea water to determine if it could be a substitute for saline and being buried alive.

a young Russian woman prisoner who died
during the test of the ceramic bomb explosion
effect on a human body when alive.
These ceramic bombs were developed for
delivering anthrax and bubonic plague.

Every member of the group was ordered “to take the secret to the grave”, threatened to be found and executed 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. Skeleton crews of Japanese troops blew the compound up in the final days of the war to destroy evidence of their activities, but most were so well constructed that they survived somewhat intact as a testimony to what had happened there. Many of the scientists involved in Unit 731 went on to prominent careers in post-war politics, academia, business, and medicine. Some were arrested by Soviet forces and tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials; others surrendered to the American Forces. In 2007, Doctor Ken Yuasa testified to the Japan Times that, “I was afraid during my first vivisection, but the second time around, it was much easier. By the third time, I was willing to do it.” He believes at least 1,000 people, including surgeons, were involved in vivisections over mainland China.

a female victim developed gas gangrene
of her buttocks after the test of the ceramic
bomb filled with Clostridium bacterial spores

Η Μονάδα 731 ήταν μια μυστική μονάδα του Ιαπωνικού Αυτοκρατορικού Στρατού στον Σινο-ιαπωνικό πόλεμο (1937-1945) και Β’ Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, όπου γίνονταν έρευνα για ανάπτυξη βιολογικών και χημικών όπλων. Σε αυτή τη μονάδα έγιναν απίστευτης ωμότητας πειράματα πάνω σε ανθρώπους, Κινέζους και Κορετάτες αιχμαλώτους, στρατιώτες ή αμάχους, ακόμα και μερικούς ευρωπαίους συλληφθέντες στρατιώτες. Υπολογίζεται να έχουν φονευθεί εκεί περίπου 580.000 άτομα σε όλη τη διάρκεια της λειτουργίας της. Βρισκόταν στην περιοχή Pingfang της ΝΑ Κίνας.

A bound chinese woman suffered the
insertion of a live cockroach in her vagina

Οι κρατούμενοι υποβάλλονταν σε πειράματα και χειρουργικές επεμβάσεις, αφαιρέσεις οργάνων και ακρωτηριασμούς χωρίς αναισθησία, αφού πρωτα είχαν μολυνθεί με διάφορους μολυσματικούς ιούς και τοξικά. Τα θύματα μπορεί να ήταν ακόμα και έγκυες γυναίκες, παιδιά και βρέφη. Όλα αυτά τα αποτρόπαια πειραματα γίνονταν για να μελετηθεί η αντίδραση του ανθρώπινου οργανισμού σε εκθέσεις σε τοξικά, ιούς, ακόμα και πόσο μπορεί να ζήσει κάποιος με σοβαρό ακρωτηριασμό και γάγγραινα. Επίσης σε ανθρώπινους στόχους δοκίμαζαν την αποτελεσματικότητα πυροβόλων, βομβών, και φλογοβόλων ανάλογα με την απόσταση. έπαιζαν με ανατομικές τερατογενέσεις, πχ άλλαζαν θέση σε όργανα και μέλη σε ζωντανούς ανθρώπους. Μόλυναν γυναίκες με αφροδίσια νοσήματα, εμβολιάζονταν με θανατηφόρους ιούς, εκτίθονταν σε μολυσμένα έντομα (ψύλλους, κατσαρίδες, κλπ). Μόνο οι συνεπαγόμενες λοιμώδεις αρρώστιες σκότωσαν περίπου 400.000 άτομα σε αυτή τη μονάδα. Αλλοι φυλακισμένοι υφίσταντο διάφορα βασανιστήρια, τους έκαναν ενέσιμο αέρα ή ακόμα και ούρα για να δουν τις επιπτώσεις, θάψιμο ζωντανών, πείνα, δίψα, έκθεση σε ακραίες θερμοκρασίες, ακτινοβολίες και πιέσεις για να μελετηθεί η αντοχή του ανθρώπινου σώματος σε αυτές τις κακοποιήσεις.

Shiro Ishii (1892–1959) was a Japanese microbiologist
and the lieutenant general of Unit 731.
He was never prosecuted for any war crimes.

Οσοι συνένοχοι συμμετείχαν στα πειράματα είχαν δώσει όρκο θανάτου και να πάρουν το μυστικό στον τάφο τους. Για την περίπτωση σύλληψης κάποιου είχαν προμηθευτεί με κυάνιο για να αυτοκτονήσουν. Στο τέλος του πολέμου, ειδικά σώματα στρατιωτών ανατίναξαν τη μονάδα για να εξαφανίσουν κάθε ίχνος και μαρτυρία, αλλά η έκταση και οι θεμελιώσεις ήταν τόσο εκτεταμένες που δεν ήταν αποτελεσματική η επιχείρηση. Όμως, παρόλο που έγιναν γνωστές αυτές οι ωμότητες, ελάχιστοι από τους υπευθύνους δικάστηκαν και καταδικάστηκαν, οι περισσότεροι έκαναν καριέρα στην ιατρική, στην πολιτική, στα πανεπιστήμια και στον επιχειρηματικό τομέα. Το 2007, ένας από τους συμμετέχοντες γιατρούς δήλωσε κυνικότατα: «Στην αρχή με τρόμαζαν οι «ανατομικές επεμβάσεις» αυτές, μετά ήταν πιο εύκολα και τελικά άρχισε να μου αρέσει να το κάνω».