During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, it promised many opportunities for young scientists who want to utilize this colony. Ishii Shiro seized the occasion, and with funding from the War Ministry of Imperial Japan, he founded Unit 731, a biological and chemical warfare research and development. He recruited the brightest minds from Japan to conduct human experiments, developed bubonic plague bombs, and tested biological and chemical weapons. Within a few years, he rapidly climbed the ranks, going from Captain to General for the Imperial Japanese Army. His impact and power overshadowed his European counterpart, Josef Mengele. After the war, he faked his death, but the CIA was able to locate him. However, he negotiated immunity and was never brought to justice. Ishii Shiro: Josef Mengele of the East is a biography based on declassified documents found in the National Archives and Records Administration. These are documents from the CIA, Far East Asia Command Center, U.S. Naval Operations, Khabavosk War Crimes Trial, and documents that survived by chance in Tokyo.

Most people know of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in World War II. From Harbin, China, Shiro Ishii unleashed unspeakable horror on the Chinese people while planning biological weapon attacks should the U.S. land on the mainland of Japan. This book is a thorough explication of the life, death and aftermath of Shiro Ishii in historical context. This book includes many heretofore unknown facts and original photos. As a biography of Ishii, the book describes a narrative of World War II and the Occupation that is shocking and original. "A tour de force of research and analysis! Port refuses to let the horrors of Unit 731 and the role of its demonic founder, Col. Shiro Ishii, fade from the collective memory of Japan." -- Gerald Paul McAlinn, Professor of Law, Keio University Law School, Tokyo, Japan "Ken Port pulls back the veil on one of the most notorious and odious Japanese wartime villains -- Shiro Ishii, the man who established and supervised Unit 731 in Manchuria where vivisection and biological war experiments were conducted. After demolishing various myths about Ishii, Port reveals that he is from a family belonging to a still influential shadowy elite. The most damning part of this scoundrel's tale implicates the Emperor in sponsoring his work and Truman for letting him off the hook." -- Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan "A truly fascinating read." -- Salil Mehra, Professor of Law, Temple University Law School

In the aftermath of World War II, the Allied intent to bring Axis crimes to light led to both the Nuremberg trials and their counterpart in Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal of the Far East. Yet the Tokyo Trial failed to prosecute imperial Japanese leaders for the worst of war crimes: inhumane medical experimentation, including vivisection and open-air pathogen and chemical tests, which rivaled Nazi atrocities, as well as mass attacks using plague, anthrax, and cholera that killed thousands of Chinese civilians. In Hidden Atrocities, Jeanne Guillemin goes behind the scenes at the trial to reveal the American obstruction that denied justice to Japan’s victims. Responsibility for Japan’s secret germ-warfare program, organized as Unit 731 in Harbin, China, extended to top government leaders and many respected scientists, all of whom escaped indictment. Instead, motivated by early Cold War tensions, U.S. military intelligence in Tokyo insinuated itself into the Tokyo Trial by blocking prosecution access to key witnesses and then classifying incriminating documents. Washington decision makers, supported by the American occupation leader, General Douglas MacArthur, sought to acquire Japan’s biological-warfare expertise to gain an advantage over the Soviet Union, suspected of developing both biological and nuclear weapons. Ultimately, U.S. national-security goals left the victims of Unit 731 without vindication. Decades later, evidence of the Unit 731 atrocities still troubles relations between China and Japan. Guillemin’s vivid account of the cover-up at the Tokyo Trial shows how without guarantees of transparency, power politics can jeopardize international justice, with persistent consequences.

Examines how insects have been used as weapons in wartime conflicts throughout history, presenting as examples how scorpions were used in Roman times and hornets nests were used during the MIddle Ages in siege warfare and how insects have been used in Vietnam, China, and Korea.

This is a riveting and disturbing account of the medical atrocities performed in and around Japan during WWII. Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of the continent. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments. In the first part of Unit 731: Testimony author Hal Gold draws upon a painstakingly accumulated reservoir of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities. The second half of the book consists almost entirely of the words of former unit members themselves, taken from remarks they made at a traveling Unit 731 exhibition held around Japan in 1994-95. These people recount their vivid first-hand memories of what it was like to cut open pregnant women as they lay awake on the vivisection table, inject plague germs into healthy farmers, and carry buckets of fresh blood and organs through corridors to their appropriate destinations. Unit 731: Testimony represents an essential addition to the growing body of literature on the still-unfolding story of one of the most infamous "military" outfits in modern history. By showing how the ethics of normal men and women, and even an entire profession, can be warped by the fire of war, this important book offers a window on a time of human madness, in the hope that such days will never come again.

Why was evidence of Japanese bacteriological and chemical warfare not presented at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and what part did America play in the conver-up of these crimes?

Discusses the types of biological warfare experiments conducted by the Japanese during World War II and the scientists who worked on them, and examines the deal made with the U.S. government in exchange for results of those tests

In 1941 Winston Churchill was Hitler’s worst enemy. Then a Nazi secret agent changed everything. What if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? Enraged, Hitler reacts by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that they will reach Paris by the new year. Instead, three years pass, and with his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler barely survives a coup, while Jews cling to survival, and England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile. The stage is set for World War II to unfold far differently from the history we know—courtesy of Harry Turtledove, wizard of “what if?,” in the continuation of his thrilling series: The War That Came Early. Through the eyes of characters ranging from a brawling American serving with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler’s evil face-to-face, The Big Switch rolls relentlessly forward into 1941. As the Germans and their Polish allies slam into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, Japan pummels away in the east. Meanwhile, in the trenches of France, French and Czech forces are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is shattered. In England Winston Churchill dies suddenly, leaving the gray men wondering who their real enemy is. And as the USSR makes peace with Japan, the empire of the Rising Sun looks westward—its war with America about to begin.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Trial before the Military Tribunal of the Primorye Military Area.