https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 Unit 731 >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#mw-head>Jump to search <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#p-search> Unit 731 [image: Unit 731 - Complex.jpg] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unit_731_-_Complex.jpg> The Unit 731 complex: two prisons are hidden in the center of the main building. Location Pingfang <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingfang>, Harbin <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbin>, Heilungkiang <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilungkiang>, China <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%931949)> Coordinates <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system> 45°36′29.71″N126°37′55.44″E <https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Unit_731¶ms=45_36_29.71_N_126_37_55.44_E_> Coordinates <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system>: 45°36′29.71″N 126°37′55.44″E <https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Unit_731¶ms=45_36_29.71_N_126_37_55.44_E_> Date 1935–1945
Attack type Human experimentation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_subject_research> Biological warfare <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_warfare> Chemical warfare <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare> Weapons Biological weapons Chemical weapons Explosives Deaths Estimated 200,000[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-1> or 300,000[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-2>-400,000 or higher from biological warfare Over 3,000 from inside experiments (Not including branches, 1940-1945 only) [3] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-trialmaterials-3>:20 At least 10,000 prisoners dead[4] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-histpersp-4> Injuries 775[*citation needed <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed>*] Perpetrators Surgeon General <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeon_General> Shirō Ishii <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shir%C5%8D_Ishii> Lt. General <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_General> Masaji Kitano <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaji_Kitano> Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic_Prevention_and_Water_Purification_Department> Weapons of m <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_of_mass_destruction> - [image: Wikipedia book] Book <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Weapons_of_mass_destruction> - [image: Category] Category <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Weapons_of_mass_destruction> - v <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Weapons_of_mass_destruction> - t <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Weapons_of_mass_destruction> - e <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Weapons_of_mass_destruction&action=edit> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Building_on_the_site_of_the_Harbin_bioweapon_facility_of_Unit_731_%E9%96%A2%E6%9D%B1%E8%BB%8D%E9%98%B2%E7%96%AB%E7%B5%A6%E6%B0%B4%E9%83%A8%E6%9C%AC%E9%83%A8731%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%EF%BC%88%E7%9F%B3%E4%BA%95%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%EF%BC%89%E6%97%A5%E8%BB%8D%E7%AC%AC731%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%E6%97%A7%E5%9D%80_PB121201.JPG> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Building_on_the_site_of_the_Harbin_bioweapon_facility_of_Unit_731_%E9%96%A2%E6%9D%B1%E8%BB%8D%E9%98%B2%E7%96%AB%E7%B5%A6%E6%B0%B4%E9%83%A8%E6%9C%AC%E9%83%A8731%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%EF%BC%88%E7%9F%B3%E4%BA%95%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%EF%BC%89%E6%97%A5%E8%BB%8D%E7%AC%AC731%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%E6%97%A7%E5%9D%80_PB121201.JPG> Building on the site of the Harbin bioweapon facility of Unit 731 *Unit 731* (Japanese <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language>: 731部隊 Hepburn <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization>: *Nana-san-ichi Butai*), also referred to as *Detachment 731*, the *731 Regiment*, *Manshu Detachment 731*, *The Kamo Detachment*[3] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-trialmaterials-3>:198, or the *Ishii Company*, was a covert biological <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_warfare> and chemical warfare <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare> research and development <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_and_development> unit of the Imperial Japanese Army <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Army> that undertook lethal human experimentation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation> during the Second Sino-Japanese War <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War>(1937–1945) of World War II <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II>. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Imperial Japan <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes>. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingfang> district of Harbin <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbin>, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_state> of Manchukuo <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchukuo> (now Northeast China <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_China>). Its parent program was officially known as the *Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic_Prevention_and_Water_Purification_Department> of the Kwantung Army <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwantung_Army>* (関東軍防疫給水部本部*Kantōgun Bōeki Kyūsuibu Honbu*). Originally set up under the *Kempeitai <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempeitai>* military police <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_police> of the Empire of Japan <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan>, Unit 731 was taken over and commanded until the end of the war by General Shirō Ishii <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shir%C5%8D_Ishii>, a combat medic <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_medic> officer in the Kwantung Army. The facility itself was built in 1935 as a replacement for the Zhongma Fortress <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongma_Fortress>, and to expand the capabilities for Ishii and his team. The program received generous support from the Japanese government up to the end of the war in 1945. Unit 731 and the other Units of the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department" were biological weapon production, testing, deployment and storage facilities. They routinely tested on human beings (who were referred to internally as "logs"). Additionally, the biological weapons were tested in the field on cities and towns in China. Estimates of up to half a million people were killed by Unit 731 and its related programs. The researchers involved in Unit 731 were secretly given immunity by the U.S. in exchange for the data they gathered through human experimentation. [5] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-Gold_2003_p109-5> Other researchers that the Soviet forces <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army> managed to arrest first were tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabarovsk_War_Crime_Trials> in 1949. The Americans did not try the researchers so that the information and experience gained in bio-weapons could be co-opted into the U.S. biological warfare program <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._biological_warfare_program>, much as they had done with German <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany>researchers in Operati <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip>on Paperclip <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip>.[6] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-6> On 6 May 1947, Douglas MacArthur <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur>, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_of_the_Allied_Forces>, wrote to Washington <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.> that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii, can probably be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence".. [5] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-Gold_2003_p109-5> Victim accounts were then largely ignored or dismissed in the West as communist propaganda <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_propaganda>.[7] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#cite_note-7>
