World War II was unquestionably one of the deadliest events in mankinds history. Between civilian and military casualties there was hardly any part of the globe not effected by the war in one way or another. Most notably among these deaths are victims of concentration camps, and those caused by Hitler’s final solution. Unfortunately the pacific theater of war was not devoid of these same atrocities of war. In a more disturbing twist the United States government may have been responsible for hiding this fact. The Japanese government disguised a covert biological and chemical warfare unit under the misleading title of “Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department”. It’s true designation was unit 731. The unit undertook lethal and inhuman experimentation on people from 1937 to 1945. Unit 731 was responsible for the most despicable and notorious war crimes carried out during World War II. 
Unit 731 base of operations was Pingfang, what is now part of Northeast China. The unit was governed by General Shiro Ishii. Under his leadership hundreds of thousands of human beings were subjected to torture in the name of advancing scientific knowledge for the Japanese military. There true goal was torture. These victims included Chinese, Russians, American POW’s, Pacific Islanders, and even Japanese. There were no restrictions on age or gender. Many victims of unit 731 were infants and pregnant women. Doctors from unit 731 infected victims with various diseases, removed internal organs without anesthesia, hacked off limbs to study blood loss, froze test subjects to study untreated frost bite, removed the stomach of victims to see how long they would survive, and even used explorative surgery on conscious patients. Many were injected with venereal disease and left untreated. According to post war testimony one of the most common practices in faculty was the use of rape gangs, and sexual abuse from guards to monitor there psychological effects. Others were the target of chemical testing of cholera and anthrax infections using infected fleas inside the facility. 
Forced pregnancy was also used by unit 731 to study the effects of damage to the women’s reproductive system, and abortion techniques. Even though there were many children born within the confines of the facility there were no known survivors. Victims were also used to test the effects more traditional military weapons. Hand grenades, bullets, bombs, and flamethrowers were all tested on living subjects. Prisoners were placed in pressure chambers until dead, given leather doses of radiation, burned or buried alive. United States POW’s from a crashed B29 were given injections of sea water to test using it as a saline solution. One unlucky airman had a lung cut out while he was conscious to test how long he would survive. When Japan surrender was inevitable United States personal were taken to undisclosed location and beheaded. The remains were incinerated and their death and disappeare blamed on their location during the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. 
As the war ended Unit 731 attempted to destroy evidence of there atrocities, but eventually United States military assets became aware of what had been carried out by the unit. Supreme commander Douglas MacArthur was briefed on the facts of unit 731. It was at this point MacArthur made an infamous and top secret decision that would remain covered by government deception for the remainder of his life. For Unit 731 cooperation with assisting the United States in biological war, and disclosing all of the findings during their experiments the members of the unit would be granted full immunity from prosecution in the world court. With this deal in place no member of Unit 731 would ever be punished for their war crimes. Many of the perpetrators and leaders of Unit 731 went on to become leaders in the medical and pharmaceutical fields of Japan, and the world. These men had no regard for human life, yet were allowed to remain free and prosperous courtesy of the United States military. Many of the details of Unit 731 have only recently come to light. The Soviet Union made accusations directed at a United States cover up, but authorities attributed this to nothing more than Cold War propaganda at the time. Though new details have come to light a cloud of mistrust and misdirection continues to plague any investigation into Unit 731 and their American conspirators. In 2011 China filed a formal request to DNA profile remains connected with Unit 731. This request was immediately denied and dismissed by Japan. Thanks to the dirty deal cut by MacArthur we may never know the full extent of the damage done by Unit 731, but some historians believe death tolls may even eclipse those of the German death camps. Unfortunately for the families of some American POW’s their true fate may never be disclosed, and the location of their loved ones will remain a mystery unresolved from some of the worlds darkest days.
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