Unit 731
Throughout the war, the Unit had been involved in a
substantial amount experimentation and testing
Much of the experiments and testing was thought of
spontaneously by Ishii and his staff
The experiments were designed to see how long
subjects would live before dying
Now, the test subjects were taken by the Japanese
Army for experimentation and vivisection
These subjects were Chinese civilians, suspected
communists, political dissidents, and anyone else
who was unfortunate enough to be selected
o Among these subjects were the elderly, women,
children, and infants
There were also a sizable group of Russian test
subjects thanks to the sizable Russian minority living
in Manchuria at the time
These subjects were imprisoned alongside other
common criminals
o When the prisons ran out of test subjects, the
Japanese secret police would sweep the streets
to meet the quota for marutas
A few allied POWs were also subjected to
experimentation, though not nearly as often
Out of all the prisoners subjected to testing, none
survived
Prisoners often lasted 4 to 6 weeks before being
used or killed
The bodies were disposed of in industrial
crematoriums not unlike those used by the Nazis
During the war, the Unit experimented with
primarily biological agents
Some of the agents and pathogens used were C.
Botulani (which causes Botulism), the Bubonic
Plague, Anthrax, Cholera, and at least a dozen more
pathogens
Now, when it came to spreading such diseases, the
Japanese got very creative
Viruses and germs would be administered through
seemingly harmless vaccines
o Some prisoners were actually given working
vaccines while others werent to see if the
vaccine was effective
Various venereal diseases were spread through a
practice that humanity has used for the entirety of
its existence, sex
o More specifically, rape
Sometimes, these subjects were raped by
the doctors themselves
To spread the disease to the United States, special
balloons were developed to send disease over to the
Western United States
o These balloons were originally launched with
explosives rather than diseases
200 of these balloons landed in the US,
resulting in very few casualties
Rats were frequently used as a method of spreading
disease, specifically the Bubonic Plague, as they
were walking flea factories
Laboratory experimentation wasnt enough, so field
tests were also carried out
The targets would be Chinese villages unfortunate
enough to be in range of Japanese aircraft
o From 1939-1942, mysterious plagues would
suddenly spring up and spread throughout these
villages
o Planes would drop plague infected flees of
villages such as Ningbo and Changde
o Sources of fresh water would be contaminated
with Cholera and Typhoid by Japanese soldiers
o Infected food would be airdropped into
unoccupied Chinese territory
o Soldiers would even go as far as giving out candy
laced with Anthrax to children
It is estimated that the testing infected or killed
anywhere between 300 000 to 500 000 Chinese
The testing was also hazardous to the Japanese, who
lost 1600 soldiers and researchers in tests that have
gone wrong
There were also various testing done to observe the
effects of frostbite
Subjects would be either placed in a frostbite testing
chamber, which is essentially a giant freezer, or be
taken outside in freezing temperatures
Next, their limbs would be periodically soaked in
water
After their limbs got frostbitten, the affected limbs
would be thawed and dehydrated
At times, limbs were thawed just to record the
effects and spread of gangrene
Other times, these limbs would be amputated
Japanese and German frostbite experiments are now
responsible for discovering the best way to treat
frostbite, which is still used to this day
The experimentation going on in Harbin was not
limited to purely biological experiments
Pressure tests involved placing prisoners in pressure
chambers
o The pressure in the chamber would then be
increased until the subjects eyes popped out
Centrifuges were also used to spin prisoners to
death
Various experiments to find a suitable substitute for
human blood involved injecting the blood of various
animals into prisoners
o The same was done with salt water to find a
replacement for saline solution
Various levels of x-ray radiation were used to
bombard the prisoners
More generic gases were tested by placing prisoners
in gas chambers, with large windows
Much of the research described was conducted to
determine the best ways to treat soldiers who fell
victim to biological attacks of conventional weapons
After testing, a subject would be taken into an
operating room to be vivisected if he or she werent
already dead
These victims would be operated on while still alive
and awake
o It was believed that decomposition would not
yield usable data
o Also, no anesthetics would be used as it was
believed that the chemical would alter the
results of the vivisection
Before being sliced open, an orderly would use a
stethoscope to listen for a heartbeat
o Between beats, the scalpel would be used so
that blood would not splatter all over the
orderlies and doctors
o