Japanese Unit

Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments in the name of science and Japan's wartime chemical and biological warfare research. Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities.

Euphemistically labeled as the "Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration" and "HippoEpizootic Administration" of the Imperial Japanese Army, Unit 731 and Unit 100, as well as their subsidiary branches, performed human experimentation on the innocents under the leadership of Dr. Ishii Shiro. Although the exact number of victims is unclear since the Japanese destroyed most of the evidence at the end of the war, but it ranged from 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children.

The topic of biological warfare (B.W.) in the Pacific theater of World War II has been relatively untouched and unexplored by the mainstream media and the public. In 1932, Ishii Shiro, a Japanese microbiologist and surgeon general, initiated an expansive B.W. research and development program. It grew in the years leading up to and throughout World War II to encompass numerous facilities in Asia. Although the 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawed the use of B.W., Japanese scientists were interested in developing bioweapons as highly destructive, inexpensive weapons. The program included conducting ...