During the Second World War, there were many war crimes committed by the armies involved
in the conflict. However some of the most shocking war crimes focussed around the use
of human experimentation. When the Allies liberated the concentration camps, they found
many horrific stories of sadistic experiments conducted by the SS doctors at camps such
as Auschwitz. One of the most infamous doctors involved in these was Josef Mengele, who was
nicknamed the Angel of Death. But there was a Japanese unit established took things to
a next level. Unit 731 were a research detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army who were involved
in conducting experiments with regards to chemical and biological warfare, and the experiments
they conducted were truly horrifying. However there were some American victims of Unit 731.
Today we look at these, remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
Initially Unit 731 began as a Japanese research and public health agency, however it grew
into a destiny assembly line for weaponised diseases that could have caused chaos over
the world. Unit 731 remained one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Second World
War, and the truth behind it was kept quiet for a long time. They focussed on disturbing
experiments on humans conducted in preparation for germ warfare. The scientists deliberately
infected with deadly diseases such as Cholera, Plague and Anthrax around 3000 enemy soldiers
and civilians. These were used as guinea pigs, and even more horrific experiments were carried
out. For example they carried out vivisection without anaesthesia, and used pressure chambers
to see how much they could push the limits of a human body. One physiologist who worked
with the group focussed on hypothermia and deliberately froze a prisoners limbs a number
of times, and it was noted when they were hit it sounded like wood.
One of the most horrific elements was the human dissections and vivisections carried
out on alive and awake humans. At first the patients who volunteered for these experiments
were from the army, however as less people volunteered, they began to use Chinese POWs
and civilian prisoners. Thousands of men and women mostly Chinese prisoners were forced
to undergo these dissections and whilst alive had organs removed after they had been infected
with deadly diseases. Some had limbs amputated and reattached on the other side of their
bodies, and when a prisoner was deemed to have been of use, they were killed with a
lethal injection or shot.
Unit 731 also focussed on weapons tests, analysing the effectiveness of guns, grenades and other
firearms and projectiles on humans at different distances. They even tested flamethrowers
on humans, but one of the overall goals of the unit’s research was to develop biological
weapons of mass destruction. It’s believed that there were plans to use these against
the Chinese and Americans and Soviets. On October 4th 1940, Japanese bombers dropped
casings loaded with 30,000 fleas infected with the plague on a Chinese village. When
the bombs fell, a reddish dust settled on surfaces and bites affected everyone. More
than 2000 civilians died from the plague and another 1000 died from the plague passing
to others. They also used anthrax in these areas too.
Unit 731 was disbanded after the Japanese surrender, and its records were mostly destroyed
and the researchers returned to civilian life. However there was a case in which American
prisoners of war ended up inside the research laboratories of unit 731, and predictably
what those men had to go through was disturbing and sadistic. In early May 1945, a US B-29
Superfortress crashed in northern Kyushu island, after it had been rammed by a Japanese fighter
plane. The US aircraft was part of the 29th bomb group, 6th bomb squadron, and it had
been flying to its base in Guam following committing a bombing raid on a Japanese airfield.
On board the Superfortress were 12 crew members. All of them parachuted out of the aircraft.
One of them died when the cord of his parachute was slice by a Japanese plane as he fell from
the aircraft. When landing, another opened up his machine gun on villagers and then to
avoid capture shot himself. The locals hated B-29 crews because of their bombing of targets
which resulted in the deaths of many civilians. They captured two of the men on the ground
and killed them, and then the remaining airmen were captured by the police and were then
placed under military custody. The squadron’s commander Marvin Watkins was then transferred
to Tokyo for questioning. During this interrogation he was tortured brutally and was beaten to
within an inch of his life for information. The other prisoners were told that they were
going to be transferred to hospital to be treated for their injuries, however what happened
next was covered up for a long time.
Over the next three weeks, the men of the Superfortress were transferred across to the
human experimentation element of the Imperial Japanese Army, Unit 731. They were subjected
to the horrific pathological experiments that the research group became infamous for. One
of the researchers who worked there and witnessed it stated, ‘one day, two blindfolded prisoners
were brought to the school in a truck, and taken to the pathology lab. Two soldiers stood
guard outside the room. I did wonder if something unpleasant was going to happen to them. But
I had no idea it was going to be that awful.’
According to statements that was later used in trials against some of the doctors and
military personnel involved, one of the American prisoners was given anaesthetic. He was then
injected with seawater to see if it worked as a replacement for sterile saline solution.
The other airmen transferred to the unit were subject to horrific experiments. One had parts
of their organs removed, with one having an entire lung removed to see the effects of
the surgery on the respiratory system. In another experiment, the doctors drilled through
the skull of a live prisoner, to see if epilepsy could be treated by removing part of the brain.
It was even accused that the Japanese researchers removed the liver of one American prisoner,
cooked it and then served it to officers, but this was never proven.
The crimes of Unit 731 went largely unpunished by the allies at the end of the Second World
War. Many things were kept covered up, and in a secret deal the post war administration
gave many of those who worked in the research group immunity from prosecution in return
for the details about the experiments. The horrors of the unit have gone in history as
one of the most barbaric elements of the Second World War.
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