Unit 731

Unit 731
The Unit 731 complex. Two prisons are hidden in the center of the main building.
Location	Pingfang, Harbin, Heilongjiang, Manchukuo (now China)
Coordinates	45°36′30″N 126°37′55″E / 45.60833°N 126.63194°E / 45.60833; 126.63194
Date	1936–1945
Attack type	Human experimentation Biological warfare Chemical warfare
Weapons	Biological weapons Chemical weapons Explosives
Deaths	Estimated 3,000[1] to 300,000[2] 400,000 or higher from biological warfare Over 3,000 from inside experiments from each unit (not including branches, 1940–1945 only)[3]: 20  At least 10,000 prisoners died[4] No documented survivors
Perpetrators	Surgeon General Shirō Ishii Lt. Gen. Masaji Kitano Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department

Unit 731 (Japanese: ７３１部隊, Hepburn: Nana-san-ichi Butai),^{[note 1]} short for Manchu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment^[3]: 198 and the Ishii Unit,^[5] 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. It killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people. 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.

Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes 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. In the final moments of the Second World 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.

While Unit 731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were tried at the December 1949 Khabarovsk war crimes trials, those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their human experiments.^[6] The United States helped cover up the human experimentations and handed stipends to the perpetrators.^[1] The Americans co-opted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own biological warfare program, much like what had been done with Nazi German researchers in Operation Paperclip.^[7][8]

On 28 August 2002, Tokyo District Court ruled that Japan had committed biological warfare in China and consequently had slaughtered many residents.^[9][10]

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