Editing Unit 731 (section)

== Formations ==
[[File:Building on the site of the Harbin bioweapon facility of Unit 731 関東軍防疫給水部本部731部隊（石井部隊）日軍第731部隊旧址 PB121201.JPG|thumb|Building of the Unit&nbsp;731 bioweapon facility in [[Harbin]]]]

Japan initiated its biological weapons program during the 1930s due to the prohibition of biological weapons in interstate conflicts by the [[Geneva Protocol]] of 1925. They reasoned that the ban verified its effectiveness as a weapon.<ref name="Kristof"/> Japan's occupation of [[Manchuria]] began in 1931 after the [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria]].<ref name="montana1">{{cite web|url=https://www.montana.edu/historybug/yersiniaessays/shama.html |title=Japan – Insects, Disease, and History {{pipe}} Montana State University |publisher=Montana.edu |date= |access-date=2022-06-01}}</ref> Japan decided to build Unit 731 in Manchuria because the occupation not only gave the Japanese an advantage of separating the research station from their island, but also gave them access to as many Chinese individuals as they wanted for use as test subjects.<ref name="montana1"/> They viewed the Chinese as no-cost assets, and hoped this would give them a competitive advantage in biological warfare.<ref name="montana1"/> Most of the victims were Chinese, but many victims were also from different nationalities.<ref name="Kristof"/> These facilities contained more than just medical research and experimentation areas; they also included spaces for detaining victims, essentially functioning as a prison.<ref name="Indiana University Press">{{cite book |last1=LaFleur| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGQYOvo9-AsC&q=Yoshimura+ |first1=William |last2=Böhme |first2=Gernot |last3=Shimazono |first3=Susumu |title=Dark medicine: rationalizing unethical medical research |date=2007 |publisher=Indiana University Press|pages=75–76|location=US| isbn=978-0-253-22041-7 }}</ref> The research and experimentation rooms were constructed around the detention area, allowing researchers to conduct their daily work while monitoring the prisoners.<ref name="Indiana University Press"/> 
Founded in 1936, Unit 731 expanded to include 3000 staff members, 150 structures, and the capacity to detain up to 600 prisoners concurrently for experimental purposes.<ref name="United States Responses to Japanese">{{cite journal | pmc=4487829 | date=2014 | last1=Brody | first1=H. | last2=Leonard | first2=S. E. | last3=Nie | first3=J. B. | last4=Weindling | first4=P. | title=United States Responses to Japanese Wartime Inhuman Experimentation after World War II: National Security and Wartime Exigency | journal=Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics | volume=23 | issue=2 | pages=220–230 | doi=10.1017/S0963180113000753 | pmid=24534743 }}</ref>

Unit 731  was a clandestine division of Japan's [[Kwantung Army]] based in Manchuria during World War II. Led by Lieutenant General [[Shirō Ishii]], the organization dedicated to the advancement of biological weaponry within the imperial army was commonly referred to as the Ishii Network.<ref name="apjjf.org">{{cite web | url=https://apjjf.org/tsuneishi-keiichi/2194/article | title=Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army's Biological Warfare Program | date=24 November 2005 }}</ref> The Ishii Network was headquartered at the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory, established in 1932 at the Japanese Army Military Medical School in [[Tokyo|Tokyo, Japan]]. Unit 731 was the first among several covert units established as offshoots of the research lab, serving as field stations and experimental sites for advancing biological warfare techniques. These efforts culminated in the experimental deployment of biological weapons on Chinese cities, a direct breach of the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of biological and chemical weapons in warfare. Participants in these activities were aware of the violations and recognized the inhumanity of using human subjects in laboratory experiments, prompting the establishment of Unit 731 and other secret units.<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

Under the direction of Shirō Ishii, the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory was established following his return from a two-year exploration of American and European research institutions. With the endorsement of high-ranking military officials, it was established for the purpose of developing biological weapons. Ishii aimed to create biological weapons with humans as their intended victims, and Unit 731 was formed specifically to pursue this objective.<ref name="apjjf.org"/> Ishii organized a secret research group, the "Tōgō Unit," for chemical and biological experimentation in Manchuria.<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

In 1936, Emperor [[Hirohito]] issued a decree authorizing the expansion of the unit and its integration into the Kwantung Army as the Epidemic Prevention Department.<ref>Daniel Barenblat, ''A plague upon humanity'', 2004, p. 37.</ref> It was divided at that time into the "Ishii Unit" and "Wakamatsu Unit", with a base in [[Changchun|Xinjing]]. From August&nbsp;1940 on, the units were known collectively as the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army" or "Unit&nbsp;731" for short.<ref>Yuki Tanaka, ''Hidden Horrors'', 1996, p. 136.</ref>

One of Ishii's main supporters inside the army was Colonel [[Chikahiko Koizumi]], who later served as [[Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare|Japan's Health Minister]] from 1941 to 1945. Koizumi had joined a secret [[poison gas]] research committee in 1915, during [[World War I]], when he and other Imperial Japanese Army officers were impressed by the successful German use of [[chlorine gas]] at the [[Second Battle of Ypres]], in which the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] suffered 6,000 deaths and 15,000 wounded as a result of the chemical attack.<ref name="Williams1989">{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Peter |title=Unit 731: Japan's secret biological warfare in World War II |last2=Wallace |first2=David |date=1989 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-02-935301-1 |edition=1. American |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|8-9}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van der Kloot |first=William |date=2004 |title=April 1915: Five Future Nobel Prize-Winners Inaugurate Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Academic-Industrial-Military Complex |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4142047 |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=152 |issn=0035-9149}}</ref>

=== Zhongma Fortress ===
Unit Tōgō was set into motion in the [[Zhongma Fortress]], a prison and experimentation camp in Beiyinhe, a village {{convert|100|km|mi|sp=us}} south of [[Harbin]] on the [[South Manchuria Railway]]. The prisoners brought to Zhongma included common [[criminal]]s, captured bandits, anti-Japanese partisans, as well as [[political prisoner]]s and people rounded up on false charges by the [[Kempeitai]]. Prisoners were generally well fed on a diet of [[rice]] or [[wheat]], [[meat]], [[Fish (food)|fish]], and occasionally even [[Alcoholic beverage|alcohol]] in order to be in normal health at the beginning of experiments. Then, over several days, prisoners were eventually drained of blood and deprived of nutrients and water. Their deteriorating health was recorded. Some were also [[vivisected]]. Others were deliberately infected with [[Plague (disease)|plague]] [[bacteria]] and other [[microbes]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Id.</ref> A prison break in the autumn of 1934, which jeopardized the facility's secrecy, and an explosion in 1935 (believed to be sabotage) led Ishii to shut down Zhongma Fortress. He then received authorization to move to Pingfang, approximately {{convert|24|km|mi|sp=us}} south of Harbin, to set up a new, much larger facility.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Sheldon H. |url=https://archive.org/details/factoriesofdeath0000harr/page/29 |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=29}}</ref>

[[File:A close up photo of the Unit 731 square building taken by the aviation and photography class of Unit 731 in 1940.jpg|thumb|Close-up photo of the Unit 731 main "square building" taken by Unit 731's aviation and photography class in 1940]]

=== Other units ===
{{Main|Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department}}

In addition to the establishment of Unit&nbsp;731, the decree also called for the creation of an additional biological warfare development unit, called the Kwantung Army Military Horse Epidemic Prevention Workshop (later referred to as Manchuria [[Unit 100]]), and a chemical warfare development unit called the Kwantung Army Technical Testing Department (later referred to as Manchuria [[Unit 516]]). After the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Japanese invasion of China]] in 1937, sister chemical and biological warfare units were founded in major Chinese cities and were referred to as Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Units. Detachments included [[Unit 1855]] in [[Beijing]], [[Unit Ei 1644]] in [[Nanjing]], [[Unit 8604]] in [[Guangzhou]], and later [[Unit 9420]] in [[Singapore]]. All of these units comprised Ishii's network, which, at its height in 1939, oversaw over 10,000 personnel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://apjjf.org/-Tsuneishi-Keiichi/2194/article.html|title=Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army's Biological Warfare Program – The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|website=apjjf.org|date=24 November 2005 |access-date=2017-10-27|archive-date=2018-01-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104190943/http://apjjf.org/-Tsuneishi-Keiichi/2194/article.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Medical doctors and professors from Japan were attracted to join Unit&nbsp;731 both by the rare opportunity to conduct human experimentation and the Army's strong financial backing.<ref name="NHK">The Truth of Unit 731: Elite medical students and human experiments (2017). NHK Documentary</ref>