33. The Japanese Doctor Who Experimented With Deadly Microbes on Thousands of Innocents
Shiro Ishii (1892 – 1959) had been a brilliant medical student and doctor, before he was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Army as a surgeon in 1921. He became one of Japan’s greatest bacterial research specialists, and invented a revolutionary filtration system that could remove all bacteria from stagnant water. In 1933, he turned to the dark side, and shifted his focus from preventing bacterial infections to weaponizing bacteria for use in warfare. That year, Japan had seized Manchuria from China, so Ishii moved there with a team of researchers, and set up a biological experimentation operation, Unit 731. For guinea pigs, Ishii and his researchers experimented upon live humans, mostly captured Chinese soldiers and civilians deemed hostile to the Japanese occupation. They also experimented upon Soviet soldiers captured in border skirmishes, and on Allied POWs after Japan joined WWII.
Experimentations of Death
Thousands of inmates were killed by a host of deadly pathogens, ranging from the bubonic plague to botulism, to which the prisoners were exposed in a variety of ways. Prisoners were injected with bacteria, had it added to their food and drink, or it was smeared on their clothes. To test the effectiveness of aerial dispersal of diseases, bombs full of gangrene or other deadly bacteria were exploded over prisoners. Shiro Ishii and Unit 731 subjected the prisoners to other atrocities as well, including starving them, exposing them to extremes of temperatures, bombarding them with X-rays, killing them in giant centrifuges, boiling them alive, or even dissecting them while they were still alive.
