Editing Unit 731 (section)

{{Short description|Japanese biological, chemical warfare unit (1936–1945)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| image = Unit_731_-_Complex.jpg
| image_upright = 1.1
| alt = 
| caption = The unit 731 complex
| title = Unit 731
| location = [[Pingfang]], [[Harbin]], [[Heilongjiang]], [[Manchukuo]] (now [[China]])
| target = 
| coordinates = {{Coord|45|36|31|N|126|37|55|E|region:CN-HL_type:landmark|display=inline}}
| date = 1936–1945
| time = 
| timezone = 
| type = {{ubl|[[unethical human experimentation|Human experimentation]]|[[Biological warfare]]|[[Chemical warfare]]}}
| fatalities = Estimated 200,000<ref name="Kristof">{{cite news |last = Kristof |first = Nicholas Db. |date = 1996-03-17 |title = Unmasking Horror – A special report. Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity
 |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/17/world/unmasking-horror-a-special-report-japan-confronting-gruesome-war-atrocity.html |newspaper = The New York Times |access-date = 2019-07-14 |archive-date = 2019-07-14 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190714031133/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/17/world/unmasking-horror-a-special-report-japan-confronting-gruesome-war-atrocity.html |url-status = live }}</ref> to 300,000<ref>{{cite news |last = Watts |first = Jonathan |date = 2002-08-28 |title = Japan guilty of germ warfare against thousands of Chinese |url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/28/artsandhumanities.japan |newspaper = The Guardian |access-date = 2019-07-14 |archive-date = 2019-08-06 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190806103833/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/28/artsandhumanities.japan |url-status = live }}</ref>
* 200,000 from biological warfare<ref name="Kristof"/><ref name="Liu">{{cite book |author=<!-- not stated --> |editor-last1=Liu |editor-first1=Huaqiu |date=2000 |title=军备控制与裁军手冊 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1VQAAAACAAJ |trans-title=Handbook on Arms Control and Disarmament |language=zh |publisher=National Defense Industry Press |page=368 |isbn=7118022829}}</ref>
* Over 3,000 from inside experiments from each unit (not including branches, 1940–1945 only)<ref name="trialmaterials">{{cite book |publisher=[[Foreign Languages Publishing House (North Korea)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]] |year = 1950 |title = Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged With Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons |url=https://archive.org/details/MaterialsOnTheTrialOfFormerServicemen}}</ref>{{rp|20}}
* At least 10,000 prisoners killed<ref name="NYannals1">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Sheldon |date=December 1992 |title=Japanese Biological Warfare Research on Humans: A Case Study of Microbiology and Ethics |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=666 |issue=1 |publisher=Wiley |pages=30–31 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1992.tb38021.x|pmid=1297279 |bibcode=1992NYASA.666...21H }}</ref>
* No documented survivors
| perps = {{ubl|[[Surgeon general]] [[Shirō Ishii]]|[[Lieutenant general|Lt. Gen.]] [[Masaji Kitano]]|[[Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department]]}}
| weapons = {{ubl|Biological weapons|Chemical weapons|Explosives}}
}}

{{nihongo|'''Unit 731'''|731部隊|Nana-san-ichi Butai|lead=yes}},{{NoteTag|The Japanese word ''[[:wikt:butai|butai]]'' is variously translated with military terms such as "unit", "detachment", "regiment", or "company".}} short for '''Manchu Detachment&nbsp;731''' and also known as the '''Kamo Detachment'''<ref name="trialmaterials" />{{rp|198}} and the '''Ishii Unit''',<ref name="ciadoc">{{Cite web |title=Human Experimentation at Unit 731 |url=https://www.pacificatrocities.org/human-experimentation.html |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Pacific Atrocities Education |language=en}}</ref> was a covert [[Biological warfare|biological]] and [[chemical warfare]] [[research and development]] unit of the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] that engaged in [[unethical human experimentation|lethal human experimentation]] and biological weapons manufacturing during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945) and [[World War II]]. Estimates vary as to how many were killed. Between 1936 and 1945, roughly 14,000 victims were murdered in Unit 731.<ref name="The day the earth died">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/mar/02/features.magazine37 | title=The day the earth died | newspaper=The Observer | date=2 March 2003 | last1=Hill | first1=Amelia }}</ref> It is estimated that at least 200,000 individuals have died due to infectious illnesses caused by the activities of Unit 731 and its affiliated research facilities.<ref name="Kristof"/> It was based in the [[Pingfang, Harbin|Pingfang]] district of [[Harbin]], the largest city in the Japanese [[puppet state]] of [[Manchukuo]] (now [[Northeast China]]) and had active branch offices throughout [[China]] and [[Southeast Asia]].

Established in 1936, Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious [[Japanese war crimes|war crimes committed by the Japanese armed forces]]. It routinely conducted tests on people who were [[Dehumanization|dehumanized]] and internally referred to as "logs". Victims were further dehumanized by being confined in facilities referred to as "log cabins". Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, [[Biological warfare|biological weapons]] testing, [[Decompression (altitude)|hypobaric]] [[pressure chamber]] testing, [[vivisection]], [[organ procurement|organ harvesting]], [[amputation]], and standard weapons testing. Victims included not only kidnapped men, women (including pregnant women), and children but also babies born from the systemic [[rape]] perpetrated by the staff inside the compound. The victims also came from different nationalities, with the majority being Chinese and a significant minority being Russian. Additionally, Unit 731 produced biological weapons that were used in areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces, which included Chinese cities and towns, water sources, and fields. All prisoners within the compound were killed to conceal evidence, and there were no documented survivors.

Originally set up by the [[Kenpeitai|military police]] of the [[Empire of Japan]], Unit&nbsp;731 was taken over and commanded until the [[End of World War II in Asia|end of the war]] by General [[Shirō Ishii]], a [[combat medic]] officer. The facility itself was built in 1935 as a replacement for the [[Zhongma Fortress]], a prison and experimentation camp. Ishii and his team used it to expand their capabilities. The program received generous support from the Japanese government until the end of the war in 1945. On 28 August 2002, [[Tokyo District Court]] ruled that Japan had committed biological warfare in China and consequently was responsible for the deaths of many residents.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-08-28 |title=Ruling recognizes Unit 731 used germ warfare in China |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2002/08/28/national/ruling-recognizes-unit-731-used-germ-warfare-in-china/ |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=The Japan Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-08-28 |title=Japan guilty of germ warfare against thousands of Chinese |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/28/artsandhumanities.japan |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

Both the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[United States]] gathered data from the Unit after the fall of Japan. While twelve Unit&nbsp;731 researchers arrested by [[Red Army|Soviet forces]] were tried at the December&nbsp;1949 [[Khabarovsk war crimes trials]], they were sentenced lightly to the Siberian labor camp from two to 25 years, in exchange for the information they held.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Sheldon H. |url=https://archive.org/details/factoriesofdeath0000harr/page/229 |title=Factories of death: Japanese biological warfare 1932 - 45 and the American cover-up |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-13206-0 |edition=Reprint |location=London |pages=229–230}}</ref> The Soviet Union built their [[Sverdlovsk anthrax leak|bioweapons facility in Sverdlovsk]] using documentation captured from the Unit in Manchuria.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alibek |first=Ken |title=Biohazard: the chilling true story of the largest covert biological weapons program in the world, told from the inside by the man who ran it |date=1999 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-375-50231-6 |location=New York |pages=36–37}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leitenberg |first=Milton |date=January 2001 |title=Biological Weapons in the Twentieth Century: A Review and Analysis |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20014091096774 |journal=Critical Reviews in Microbiology |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=270 |doi=10.1080/20014091096774 |pmid=11791799 |issn=1040-841X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The researchers captured by the US military were secretly given [[Immunity from prosecution (international law)|immunity]].<ref name="Gold 2003 p109">Hal Gold, ''Unit 731 Testimony'', 2003, p.&nbsp;109.</ref> The [[Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman administration]] helped cover up the human experimentations and handed [[stipend]]s to the perpetrators.<ref name="Kristof" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Guillemin |first=Jeanne |title=Hidden atrocities: Japanese germ warfare and American obstruction of justice at the Tokyo Trial |date=2017 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-18352-9 |series=Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and Warren I. Cohen books on American-East Asian relations |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tatlow |first=Didi Kirsten |date=2015-10-21 |title=A New Look at Japan's Wartime Atrocities and a U.S. Cover-Up |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/china-unit-731-japan-war-crimes-biological/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Sinosphere Blog |language=en}}</ref> The cover-up of Japanese war crimes and biological warfare capabilities was motivated both by an interest in the data collected by the Japanese and by a desire to prevent the Soviets from gaining information. However, the information obtained was not of significant value, as the U.S. biological warfare program had surpassed the capabilities of Unit 731 by 1943.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leitenberg |first=Milton |date=January 2001 |title=Biological Weapons in the Twentieth Century: A Review and Analysis |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20014091096774 |journal=Critical Reviews in Microbiology |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=270 |doi=10.1080/20014091096774 |pmid=11791799 |issn=1040-841X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Sheldon H. |url=https://archive.org/details/factoriesofdeath0000harr/page/222 |title=Factories of death: Japanese biological warfare 1932 - 45 and the American cover-up |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-13206-0 |edition=Reprint |location=London |pages=209, 222–223}}</ref>