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unit 731 japan

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that operated from 1936 to 1945 during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II

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. Located in Pingfang district of Harbin, Manchukuo (now Northeast China), it was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by Japanese armed forces

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. Led by Lieutenant General Shirō Ishii, Unit 731 conducted lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing

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. The facility, built in 1935, replaced the Zhongma Fortress and expanded Japan's capabilities in biological warfare

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. Key aspects of Unit 731:

  1. Human experimentation: Victims, dehumanizingly called "logs," were subjected to horrific experiments including disease injections, vivisection, and weapons testing

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  2. Biological weapons: The unit produced and tested biological weapons in Chinese cities, towns, and fields

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  3. Victims: Primarily Chinese and Russian, but also included other nationalities. Estimates of deaths range from 23,000 to 300,000

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  4. Facilities: The main compound in Harbin had 150 buildings and could hold up to 600 prisoners

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    .     Affiliated units operated in Nanking (Unit 1644), Beijing (Unit 1855), and Changchun (Unit 100)

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  5. Government support: The program received generous funding from the Japanese government, with an annual budget of about 86 million dollars in today's currency

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After Japan's surrender in 1945, much of the evidence was destroyed

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. The Japanese government did not acknowledge Unit 731's atrocities until 1988 and has yet to formally apologize

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. In 2002, Tokyo District Court ruled that Japan had committed biological warfare in China

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What were the most horrific experiments conducted at Unit 731

How did the Japanese government justify the existence of Unit 731

What happened to the scientists and staff of Unit 731 after the war

How did the international community respond to the revelations about Unit 731

Are there any surviving records or documents from Unit 731