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Unit 731 (Japanese: 731部隊, Hepburn: Nana-san-ichi Butai), short for Manchu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment: 198  and the Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in 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 to 1945, roughly 14,000 victims were murdered in Unit 731. It is estimated that at least 300,000 individuals have died due to infectious illnesses caused by the activities of Unit 731 and its affiliated research facilities. It was based in the 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 war crimes which were committed by the Japanese armed forces. It routinely conducted tests on people who were dehumanized and internally referred to as "logs". Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, biological weapons testing, hypobaric pressure chamber testing, vivisection, 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. Estimates of those killed by Unit 731 and its related programs range up to half a million people, and none of the inmates survived. During the end of the war, all prisoners were killed to conceal evidence. Originally set up by the military police of the Empire of Japan, Unit 731 was taken over and commanded until the 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. Both the Soviet Union and United States gathered data from the Unit after the fall of Japan. While twelve Unit 731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were tried at the December 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. Those captured by the US military were secretly given immunity, The United States helped cover up the human experimentations and handed stipends to the perpetrators. The US had co-opted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own warfare program (resembling Operation Paperclip), so did the Soviet Union in building their bioweapons facility in Sverdlovsk using documentation captured from the Unit in Manchuria. 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. Formations 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. Japan's occupation of Manchuria began in 1931 after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. 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. They viewed the Chinese as no-cost assets, and hoped this would give them a competitive advantage in biological warfare. Most of the victims were Chinese, but many victims were also from different nationalities. These facilities contained more than just medical research and experimentation areas; they also included spaces for detaining victims, essentially functioning as a prison. The research and experimentation rooms were constructed around the detention area, allowing researchers to conduct their daily work while monitoring the prisoners. 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. 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. The Ishii Network was headquartered at the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory, established in 1932 at the Japanese Army Military Medical School in Tokyo. 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. Under the direction of Ishii Shiro, 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. Ishii organized a secret research group, the "Tōgō Unit," for chemical and biological experimentation in Manchuria. 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. It was divided at that time into the "Ishii Unit" and "Wakamatsu Unit", with a base in Xinjing. From August 1940 on, the units were known collectively as the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army" or "Unit 731" short. One of Ishii's main supporters inside the army was Colonel Chikahiko Koizumi, who later served as Japan's Health Minister from 1941 to 1945. Koizumi had joined a secret poison gas research committee in 1915, during World War I, .... Discover the Hal Gold popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Hal Gold books.