ABSTRACT
In 1932, the Imperial Japanese Military leadership decided to set up an offensive biological warfare (BW) program (cf. Leitenberg 2003; Tsuneishi 1986; chapters 1-3, this volume). Under the leadership of General Dr. Ishii Shiro,1 Japan’s Kwantung Army built research centers to develop biological weapons in several Chinese cities, including Beiyinhe, Harbin (Unit 731), Nanjing (Unit 1644), Beijing (Unit 1855), Mengjiatun (Unit 100), and Guangzhou (Unit 8604). In these centers, Japanese military scientists isolated viruses and bacteria that were thought to have potential as biological weapons, studied the natural course of the diseases caused by these pathogens, and attempted to increase pathogen lethality. They further tried to develop vaccines to protect against infection with the pathogens and investigated methods to produce the viruses and bacteria in large quantities and to disseminate them through weapon systems. In many of these experiments, the Japanese scientists used prisoners of war and other prisoners as experimental subjects. In order to conduct such human experiments, the research centers – in particular Unit 731 in Harbin – had the functional capabilities of both concentration camps and research laboratories. The victims of the human experiments were routinely killed, autopsied, and incinerated in the crematories of the Japanese BW units. Estimates of the number of victims killed by the units range from 3000 to tens of thousands (see Bärnighausen 2002; Han and Xin 1991; Harris 1994).
