It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Unit 731 was divided into eight divisions:
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.
Having been granted immunity by the American Occupation Authorities at the end of the war, Ishii never spent any time in jail for his crimes and died at the age of 67 of throat cancer.
The US feared that the Soviet Union might acquire Ishii's expertise and records and thus discussed a secret deal. Allied POWs had a lot of stories to tell about biological experimentation on humans. The US government successfully covered-up this and had the Allied POWs sworn to secrecy. Furthermore, prosecutors at the Tokyo War Crimes trials were warned not to investigate the specific crimes and by 1948 all Unit 731 members were offered immunity in exchange for data and co-operation.
The discovery of the bodies beneath Tokyo , broke a cover-up which lasted for more than four decades and Allied servicemen started telling about their ordeals. Joseph Gozzo, a former aviation engineer, had glass rods inserted in his rectum during his internment. He said "Damn right I remember; I can't believe our government let them get away with it".
Ex-POW, Frank James, shared his memories with a US House of Representatives sub-committee in 1986: "We were just pawns. We Always knew there was a cover-up". The House of Representatives hearing lasted just half a day and only one of 200 US survivors was permitted to testify and the chief archivist for the US Army. The latter said that files provided by Ishii were returned to Japan in the 1950s and copies had not been made.
Initially, the US and Japanese governments denied that atrocities had occurred but a body of official information was made public. A file from General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters states that the investigation of Unit 731 was "under direct Joint Chiefs of Staff order.......the utmost secrecy is essential in order to protect the interests of the United States and to guard against embarrassment." Finally, in 1993, US Defence Secretary William Perry promised to declassify record of WWII biological experiments so as to calm down the intense public pressure.
Originally posted by oldsoulnewmind
If I may add it is "MEN Behind the Sun" I netflixed it and thats what came up as a "save" in queue. I believe I had seen clips of this film somewhere before. It's absolutely chilling
High-level Japanese war criminals were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The prosecution team was made up of justices from eleven Allied nations: Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The Tokyo trial lasted two and a half years, from May 1946 to November 1948. The principle charges were making aggressive war and allowing atrocities against POWs and civilians.
Two of the twenty-eight defendants died of natural causes during the trial. One had a mental breakdown on the first day of trial, was sent to a psychiatric ward and was released in 1948. The remaining twenty-five were found guilty. Seven were sentenced to death by hanging, sixteen to life imprisonment, and two to lesser terms. All seven sentenced to death were found to be guilty of inciting mass-scale atrocities, among other counts, and hanged Dec. 23. Three of the sixteen sentenced to life imprisonment died in prison. The remaining thirteen were paroled between 1954 and 1956, with less than eight years in prison for their crimes against millions of people.
ACCUSED
0 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 5 SENTENCE NOTES
1 7 9 1 2 3 5 6 4 5
ARAKI
G G X X X X X X X X Life Imp. Paroled 1955
DOIHARA
G G G G G X G G G O Death
HASHIMOTO
G G X X X X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1954
HATA
G G G G G X X X - G Life Imp. Paroled 1955
HIRANUMA
G G G G G X X G X X Life Imp. Paroled 1955
HIROTA
G G X X X X X X - G Death
HOSHINO
G G G G G X X X X - Life Imp. Paroled 1955
ITAGAKI
G G G G G X G G G - Death
KAYA
G G G G G X ? ? ? O Life Imp. Paroled 1955
KIDO
G G G G G X X X X X Life Imp. Paroled 1955
KIMURA
G G G G G - - - G G Death
KOISO
G G G G G X X - - G Life Imp. Died 1950
MATSUI
X X X X X X X X - G Death **
MINAMI
G G X X X X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1954
MUTO
G G G G G X X - G G Death
OKA
G G G G G X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1954
OSHIMA
G X X X X X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1955
SATO
G G G G G X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1956
SHIMADA
G G G G G X X - - - Life Imp. Paroled 1955
SHIRATORI
G X X X X - - - - - Life Imp. Died 1949
SHIGEMITSUX
G G G G G X X - G 7 years Paroled 1950 Foreign Minister 1954
SUZUKI
G G G G G X X X X - Life Imp. Paroled 1955
TOGO
G G G G G X X X - - 20 years Died 1948
TOJO
G G G G G G X - G O Death **
UMEZU
G G G G G - - X X X Life Imp. Died 1949
Blank: No indictment; G: Guilty; X: Not Guilty; O: Other.
** - Enshrined as "martyr" at the Yasukuni Shrine,
national war memorial dedicated to the
Shinto code of bushido - the way of the soldier.
COUNTS OF INDICTMENT:
Count 1: as "leaders, organizers, instigators, or accomplices in
the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy
... to wage wars of aggression, and war or wars in
violation of international law."
Count 27: waging unprovoked war against China.
Count 29: waging aggressive war against the United States.
Count 31: waging aggressive war against the British Commonwealth.
Count 32: waging aggressive war against the Netherlands.
Count 33: waging aggressive war against France (Indochina).
Count 35&36waging aggressive war against the USSR.
Count 54: "ordered, authorized, and permitted" inhumane treatment of
Prisoners of War (POWs) and others.
Count 55: "deliberately and recklessly disregarded their duty" to
take adequate steps to prevent atrocities.
Originally posted by Theoretician
reply to post by AeonStorm
This was disgusting... And all for war!
I could maybe understand if it was for medicinal purposes but even then it is extremely inhumane and I would probably do anything I could to stop such experiments taking place!
Thanks for bringing this to light I never knew...
Originally posted by vjr1113
im also pretty damn sure the US has done similar things, almost certain.