A Japanese military unit, created in 1936 by direct order of Emperor Hirohito, also operating during the Second World War, carrying out terrible and inhumane experiments. This is Unit 731. Unit 731 was a top-secret group of the Imperial Japanese Army that aimed to develop biological and chemical weapons for military use. But what makes this even more horrific is how they achieved their goals: through brutal experiments on human beings.
What was Unit 731 and what were its crimes against humanity?
After the war ended, the US discovered the horrors committed by Unit 731 and other Japanese biological warfare facilities. But unlike what they did in Germany with the Nazis, where they publicly exposed their crimes, tried and condemned their leaders, Washington chose a different path in Japan. Instead of punishing those responsible for war crimes, the US decided to hide the truth and even offer immunity to the Japanese perpetrators.
What was the role of the United States in the history of Unit 731?
In a secret agreement reached between September 1945 and November 1948, the US Army’s Fort Detrick spent 250,000 yen, the equivalent of several thousand US dollars at the time, to obtain medical data and documents about human experiments, bacterial tests, war of germs and toxic gas experiments conducted by Unit 731.
How could Unit 731 have contributed to the chemical and biological weapons program in the USA?