Everything about Shir Ishii totally explained
was a
microbiologist and the
lieutenant general of
Unit 731, a
biological warfare unit of the
Imperial Japanese Army during the
Second Sino-Japanese War.
Biography
Ishii was born in the former
Shibayama Village of
Sanbu District in
Chiba Prefecture, and studied
medicine at
Kyoto Imperial University. Although he was considered a selfish, pushy, and sometimes disturbed individual, he excelled in his studies, and in 1922 was assigned to the 1st Army Hospital and Army Medical School in
Tokyo. There his work impressed his superiors enough to gain him, two years later, post-graduate medical schooling back at the
Kyoto Imperial University.
Beginning in 1928, Ishii took a two-year tour of the West. In his travels, he did extensive research on the effects of
biological warfare and
chemical warfare developments from
World War I onwards. It was a highly successful mission and helped win him the patronage of
Sadao Araki,
Minister of the Army.
In 1932, he began his preliminary experiments in biological warfare as a secret project for the Japanese military. In 1936,
Unit 731 was formed. Ishii built a huge compound -- more than 150 buildings over six square kilometers -- outside the city of
Harbin,
China. The research was secret, and the cover story was that Unit 731 was engaged in
water-purification work.
From 1940, Ishii was appointed Chief of the Biological Warfare Section of the
Kwangtung Army, holding the post simultaneously with that of the Bacteriological Department of the Army Medical Academy.
In 1942, Ishii began field tests of germ warfare agents developed, and various methods of dispersion (for example via firearms, bombs etc.) both on
Chinese prisoners of war and operationally on battlefields and against
civilians in Chinese cities. Some historians estimate that tens of thousands died as a result of the bio-weapons (including
bubonic plague,
cholera,
anthrax and others) deployed. His unit also conducted physiological experiments on human subjects, including
vivisections, forced
abortions, and simulated
strokes and
heart attacks.
From 1942-1945, Ishii was Chief of the Medical Section of the
Japanese First Army
In 1945, in the final days of the
Pacific War and in the face of imminent defeat, Japanese troops blew up the headquarters of Unit 731 in order to destroy evidence of the research done there. As part of the cover-up, Ishii ordered 150 remaining subjects killed. Between 3,000 and 10,000 test subjects , which Ishii and his peers called
maruta (丸太; "logs," a reference to their view of subjects being inert, expendable entities) eventually died at the hands of Unit 731.
Arrested by the
American occupation authorities at the end of
World War II, Ishii and Unit 731 leaders received
immunity in 1946 from
war-crimes prosecution before the
Tokyo tribunal in exchange for germ warfare data based on
human experimentation. On 6 May 1947,
Douglas MacArthur wrote to Washington that «additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and won't be employed as "War Crimes" evidence.» The deal was concluded in 1948.
Ishii was never prosecuted for any
war crimes. According to Richard Drayton, he later moved to
Maryland where he conducted research into bio-weapons . But according to his daughter Harumi, he stayed in Japan, where he died of
throat cancer at the age of 67.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shir Ishii'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://shir___ishii.totallyexplained.com">Shirō Ishii Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
