International Baccalaureate History Internal Assessment
What happened to the doctors of Unit 731 after the Japanese surrender?
Word count: 2199
Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources
This
investigation examines the question: What happened to the doctors of
Unit 731 after the Japanese surrender? Unit 731 was a base for Japanese
research on biological warfare (BW). Under the order of Japan's Emperor
Hirohito, the programme was established by Dr Shiro Ishii in 1932 in
Japan. After Japan occupied Manchuria, the program rose to its final
stage, having the opportunity to execute experiments on war prisoners in
occupied China.
Source A: A report to the Chief of Chemical Corps
of the United States in Camp Detrick, “A brief summary of new
information about Japanese biological warfare activities”, dated on the
20th of June 1947 and written by the Chief of PP-E (Pharmacology,
Physiology, Evaluation).1
Dated 1947, it outlines the US
military's internal view of the BW program conducted in Unit 731. As a
Top-Secret intelligence document, its origin provides strong immediacy
and relevance as a firsthand account written by high-ranking officials
of the United States military. Its purpose was to provide a briefing on
the results of interviews conducted with doctors and investigations on
Unit 731. Consequently, it gives an unfiltered assessment of Unit 731
from the US military standpoint.
The content of the source
summarises the findings on the experiments conducted by magnitude and
classification, giving direct numbers, e.g. “more than 200 human cases
of disease caused by BW agents”. Also, further insights were promised in
the document, from the director of Unit 731, Dr Shiro Ishii, in the
form of a “treatise”.
However, the source is limited as it
primarily reflects the US military viewpoint and strategic interests,
thereby excluding crucial perspectives of the Japanese military, the
Chinese civil society, as well as the victims of the Unit 731
experiments. The selective US narrative produces a strategically framed
bias, rooted in its origin as an intelligence document.
Additionally,
this contemporary source omits ethical evaluations and long-term legal
consequences for the doctors involved with Unit 731. This limits the
source’s contribution to evaluating justice after the war.
Source
B: The book “Hidden Atrocities: Japanese Germ Warfare and American
Obstruction of Justice at the Tokyo Trial” by Jeanne Guillemin,
published in 2017.2
This secondary source focuses on American-East
Asian relations, providing a detailed historical analysis of the
relations between the US military and Unit 731 doctors. It was written
by a historian in 2017, which offers the author broad access to archives
and evaluating multiple trials for a more comprehensive historical
interpretation.
The purpose of the source was to argue that
obstruction of justice occurred in the actions taken by the United
States (U.S.) after the Japanese surrender. Therefore, it interprets the
American objectives, arguing the U.S. motive in the Khabarovsk Trial.
The book contains factual data and names doctors and authority figures
involved. It draws on the documented trial, which enhances reliability
in the functional foundation of the source.
The source is valuable
to this investigation since it examines how the United States dealt
with the doctors of Unit 731, allowing insight into how justice was
avoided, therefore directly addressing the question of this
investigation.
This source could reflect hindsight bias, as it was
written in 2017, long after the events occurred. Therefore, later
access to information, as well as new established narratives, could
shift the author's interpretation of the actions taken by the U.S.
military. In addition, the secondary source could have been influenced
by the personal opinion of the author or shaped to align with the
intended purpose to reconsider.
Section 2: Investigation
After
the Japanese surrender, Ishii issued an order to blow up the site of
Unit 731 to not leave behind any significant material.3 Some involved
got captured by the Soviets as they advanced into Manchuria. The
captured were held in the Soviet hands as war prisoners and sentenced to
trial in Khabarovsk.4 This section examines the intention behind the
trial and what happened to the war prisoners that were captured and the
doctors/workers that weren't.
After Japan's defeat, the United
States favoured advancing its military interests in return for not
seeking justice. The priority was the BW data of Unit 731.5 The
reasoning according to MacArthur was that: “The value to the United
States of Japanese BW data is of such importance to national security as
to far outweigh the value accruing from ‘war crimes’ prosecution.”6
Although
Ishii warned everyone not to let any information out, as interviews
were made by the team of Fort Detrick, the BW institution of the United
States, the doctors were cooperative, in the hopes of a mild treatment
from the U.S. military.7 Following, Ishii staged his own death and
quietly returned home, his behaviour indicating consciousness of guilt
and fear of liability. Discovery of Ishii's staged death resulted in an
interview at his house in Tokyo.8 Ishii offered information if he was
granted immunity.9 Ishii said, “I would like to be hired by the United
States as a biological warfare expert. In preparation for the war with
Russia, I can give you the advantage of my 20 years of research and
experience.”10 This immunity deal, accepted by the United States
military, was extended beyond Ishii to others who had been tied to
working at Unit 731.11 If people became aware of Unit 731, the U.S.
military had a plan to point out “lack of solid evidence that
experiments and BW had in fact occurred”.12 This marked the beginning of
the collaboration of Japanese doctors of Unit 731 and the United States
military, yet it came with the expense of justice for the countless
victims of Unit 731.13 The Unit 731 doctors aimed to escape prosecution,
while the U.S. military made an effort to gain BW data.
General
MacArthur and the United States military made a significant effort to
conceal the truth about the immunity deals.14 Therefore, it was deeply
concerning that the USSR had captured personnel linked to Unit 731.15
Much of the evidence given in the trial was dismissed as negligible, as
Stalin was infamous for his show trials in the Western world. All twelve
defendents were involved with BW activities, but only six were involved
in the “731 detachment”. All twelve pleaded guilty and were sentenced
to 2-25 years in prison or hard labour.16 General MacArthur, in response
to the verdict, made a statement from his office in Tokyo. He tried to
“denounce the Khabarovsk trial and Izvestia's charges of Japanese BW and
a United States cover-up as false communist propaganda”.17 Although the
Khabarovsk trial was first dismissed as propaganda, it nonetheless
created a political threat that was detrimental to the United States'
effort to conceal immunity agreements with the doctors of Unit 731.
The
doctors initially denied having ever used Soviet war prisoners in their
experiments, as recorded in Source A.18 Nevertheless, the motive for
capturing the doctors and putting them on trial was Unit 731's proximity
to Soviet borders, propaganda and revenge for the atrocities some
Soviet war prisoners went through in Unit 731.19 The infamous trial was
held in Khabarovsk, a remote location, and announced on short notice,
thereby excluding foreign reporters, enhancing the success of the
propaganda campaign.20 Therefore, the Soviets had the opportunity to
reinforce their perspective internationally. Moreover, the evidence
presented was translated by a Soviet "Senior Interpreter, Master of
Historical Sciences" named Podpaldova and the trial primarily presented
evidence to support a Soviet-driven narrative.21 As a result, the
evidence's credibility is questionable, as it was accessible for
manipulation. Although the American ambassador in Moscow believed that
the trial was likely one of Stalin's long-planned “show trials",22 the
USSR had been pressuring the United States authorities to hand over a
former Unit 731 worker for trial unsuccessfully.23 Nonetheless, the
members of the BW activity in the Trial were considered to represent a
wide range of roles and responsibilities.24 For instance, Yamada Otozoo,
the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Kwantung Army, was part of the
trial, as well as Kurushima Yuji, who served in Unit 731 as a laboratory
assistant.25 It turned out that some of this evidence was considered to
carry real value, which suggests that, despite the propagandistic
intent, the Soviets attempted to reveal Japanese BW.26 The United States
Army Intelligence reported that before the trial, the Soviets had been
working with about thirty captured members of Unit 731.27 This is
significant, as it demonstrates performative and selective
accountability, characteristics of a show trial. The defendant's level
of compliance indicates a high level of pressure from the Soviets, since
the guilty pleas would undermine the United States efforts to cover up
the immunity deals, effectively reducing the credibility of the trial.28
Reportedly,
captured doctors were interrogated, suggesting a systematic interest in
the Japanese BW program by the Soviets.29 The soviet BW scientist, Igor
V. Domaradskij, stated in Soviet internal project reports that the
doctors' experience of Unit 731 and the “large-scale cultures of
bacteria and fleas” could be “useful” for the Soviet BW program.30 This
suggests that the Soviets were not solely driven by revenge. That
approach was, however, not exclusive to the Soviets. The doctors of Unit
731 had interviews with the United States as well as with the Soviet
Union. When the tactical importance was recognised by the United States,
the doctors were ordered “not to mention … the U.S. interviews” to the
Soviets. Moreover, in the circumstance that the information was
valuable, they would be instructed that “its divulgence to the Soviets
should not be permitted”.31 This indicates that both countries saw the
doctors as a strategic asset, competition over the data contributed to
the rapid rise in tension between the USSR and the United States,
foreshadowing the Cold War.
Many doctors went back to their lives
undisturbed and unpunished.32 Those involved in the Khabarovsk trial
(December 1949) went back to China after the release of all war
prisoners in 1956, as China and the USSR were at peace.33 Ishii had
secretly visited the United States BW station Fort Detrick to lecture on
how to effectively conduct germ warfare.34 However, the United States
was hesitant to allow some high-ranking officials from Unit 731 a return
to careers in universities.35 Ishii, like many others, lived an
anonymous, peaceful and comfortable life. In rare cases, he faced
blackmail attempts, which were resolved through United States
intelligence surveillance.36 This illustrates how the United States
military actively protected the doctors and high-ranking officials,
upholding their immunity agreement. Due to the high payment the doctors
received while working at Unit 731, many went back to jobs similar to
the area before, e.g. working for the Ministry of Health or Welfare.
Meguro Masahiko, a pharmacist associated with Unit 731, states that
“those are the people who built the foundation of today's Japan”.37 A
few members of Unit 731 earned a reasonable amount of money as
executives of pharmaceutical companies.38 Others continued working in
education, for instance, the leader of the Anthrax division of Unit 731,
became the Chief textbook investigator of the Ministry of Education.39
The involvement of former Unit 731 officials restricted the presentation
of Unit 731-related events. This contributed to the limited
acknowledgement of Unit 731 atrocities, within Japanese textbooks.40
Moreover, the emperor remained unprosecuted, as Britain and the United
States opposed a trial for securing a stable surrender of Japan.41 As a
result, measures taken to advance the United States immunity deal
carried long-term consequences for Japanese postwar justice.
In
conclusion, this investigation aimed to discover what happened to the
doctors of Unit 731 after the Japanese surrender. The evidence shows
that the doctors were granted immunity by the United States in return
for data. Political and national interests played a greater role than
the pursuit of justice and ethical accountability. In both cases, for
the USSR and the United States, the data of Unit 731 became a Cold War
resource.
Section C: Reflection
This investigation has
helped me understand how historians reconstruct events based on the
sources that have been shaped with secrecy, political influence and
propaganda. Examining what happened to the Doctors and workers of Unit
731 after Japan's surrender has helped me gain knowledge on how to
manage tampered sources, like the transcript of the Khabarovsk trial. I
realised that politics determines what narrative of the story survives,
one example is the Japanese textbook censorship.
My methodology
included primary sources such as post-war United States Military records
and the official Soviet transcript of the Khabarovsk trial.
Additionally, secondary sources that have already been analysed by
historians, such as the book “A Plague upon Humanity".
A
limitation I faced was translation, as there were a few records and
primary sources that were not accessible for me to analyse, and
translations could have been tampered with. Furthermore, I struggled to
balance out empathy for the victims and authentic evidence, which risked
my analysis being too opinionated.
I noted that I had never heard
of Unit 731 until I started this investigation, despite the severity
and scale of the operation. Yet all over the world, we learn about the
Holocaust, despite both disregarded human rights. This led me to reflect
on how political interests like the immunity deal between the United
States and doctors influence our current educational system.
Works Cited
Barenblatt, Daniel. 2004. A Plague upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan's Germ Warfare Operation. New York: HarperCollins.
Chang, Iris. 1997. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. New York: BasicBooks.
Cunliffe, William H. 2006. Select Documents on Japanese War Crimes and Japanese Biological Warfare, 1934-2006. Washington, DC: National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/files/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/select-documents.pdf
Domaradskiĭ, Igorʹ V., and Wendy Orent. 2003. Biowarrior: inside the Soviet/Russian biological War machine. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Drea, Edward J. 2006. Researching Japanese War Crimes Records: Introductory Essays. Washington, DC: Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group.
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Guillemin, Jeanne. 2017. Hidden Atrocities: Japanese Germ Warfare and American Obstruction of Justice at the Tokyo Trial. New York: Columbia University Press.
Harris, Sheldon H. 2002. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45, and the American Cover-up. London: Routledge.
Polunina, Valentyna. 2015. “Chapter 5, The Khabarovsk trial.” In Trials for International Crimes in Asia, 121-144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rimmington, Anthony. 2021. The Soviet Union’s Invisible Weapons of Mass Destruction: Biopreparat's Covert Biological Warfare Programme. Cham: Springer.
“Russia Claims U. S. Prepares to use Diseases as War Weapons.” December 29, 1949. Radford News Article 4 (275): 6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.35146871.pdf.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1950. Materials on the trial of former servicemen of the Japanese army charged with manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.
Williams, Peter, and David Wallace. 1989. Unit 731: Japan's secret biological warfare in World War II. New York: Free Press.
Yang, Yan-Jun, and Ruqian Tan. 2018. Unit 731: Laboratory of the Devil, Auschwitz of the East: Japanese Biological Warfare in China 1933-45. Barnsley: Fonthill Media.
