Evidences about Activity of Unit 731

The history of Unit 731 can be divided into three periods, which were associated with the stages of Japanese expansion on the Far East. The first period was associated with initial stage of Japanese occupation of Manchuria till the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. The second period was related to events of the Second Japanese-Chinese War before the entrance of Japan into the Second World War. The third period was associated with events of the Second World War itself. Each of these periods was characterized by different goals and methods of lethal experimentations on humans which were conducted in the secret research laboratories of Unit 731.

Initial Period of Experiments

The initial period of the history of Unit 731 began since its foundation in 1932 and it was associated with first experiments, the victims of which were people who struggled against Japanese occupation of Manchuria and against the regime of Japanese puppet-state Manchukuo. The goal of these experiments was a creation of bacteriological weapon which should be used in further wars against the Soviet Union and Mongolia on the north and against China on the south¹³. Conditions of Japanese occupation were beneficial for activity of Ishii’s terrible experiments, because all spheres of life in Manchukuo were under the control of Japanese power and people here could be kidnaped from the streets for using in his lethal experimentations¹⁴. It is important to note that in 1932 Japan withdrew from League of Nations and already officially neglected the norms of international law¹⁵. At the same time, during the initial period the command of Shirō Ishii could provide their experiments only on people, who were considered in Manchukuo as criminals and who were not protected by the law, because Japan was not at war with other countries and there were no war prisoners¹⁶. However, these criminals were mainly Chinese rebels against the Japanese occupation who were Chinese communists or supported the nationalistic government of Chiang Kai-Shek¹⁷. In this context, there were three kinds of forces which provided for Shirō Ishii the prisoners, who should be used in lethal experimentations. The first force was a police of Manchukuo, which also had function to control and to oppress all manifestations of anti-Japanese activity in this puppet-state¹⁸. The second was the special police of Manchukuo, the main function of which was the struggle against Chinese resistance movement in Manchuria¹⁹. The third force was associated with the secret police of Japanese army which was called kenpeitai and this force was the most ominous and cruel of them²⁰. The kenpeitai had a developed set of secret agents who could kidnap the enemies of Japanese regime from streets for using as live biological material in the experiments of Shirō Ishii, so this secret police became the main basis for activity of his secret laboratory²¹. Former kenpeitai Miou Yutaka described how they captured people and send them to research laboratories of Shirō Ishii on black trucks with no windows²². In this way many people, who were suspected in anti-Japanese activity, disappeared and nobody of their friends and relatives knew about their fate²³. Only modern testimonies of former kenpeitai and members of Ishii’s command revealed that they were used for lethal human experimentations.

According to Japanese historian Tsuneishi Keiichi, the first human experimentations began only in 1933 when the secret laboratory of Shirō Ishii achieved enough prisoners for these goals²⁴. During the initial stage of the history of Ishii’s unit the experiments on humans were mainly associated with the examining of influence of diseases on human organisms²⁵. The results of these experiments were used for a development of more effective species of bacteriological weapon²⁶. Till 1936 there were only ten doctors and near one hundred of additional staff in the command of Shirō Ishii, which at that time was called the Togo Unit²⁷. In 1936 this unit was officially inaugurated as the Unit 731, and, in result of this reformation its personnel and financial support also extended²⁸. At that time, unit achieved new specialists in bacteriology, physiology, medical pathology and researching experiments with the animals²⁹. Along with the reformation of Ishii’s “The Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory” (Togo Unit) into the Unit 731, new military research units subordinated to the High Command of the Kwantung Army were created in Manchuria. These units were the Manchuria Unit 100 “Kwantung Army Military Horse Epidemic Prevention Workshop” and the Manchuria Unit 100 and the Manchuria Unit 516 “Kwantung Army Technical Testing Department”³⁰. Like the Unit 731, the Unit 100 was created for development of the biological weapon, but with more focus on diseases which originated from animals, while the Unit 516 was established for creation of the chemical weapon³¹. It is important that reformation of Togo Unit and creation of new research units was conducted in 1936 exactly before the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. These aspects show that the initial period of experiments in the sphere of biological weapon gradually ended and the next stage should be directly determined by the goals of the further war. According to these goals, the work on creation of biological weapon and experimentations on humans, which were the basis of this work, should be extended and rapidly intensified.