Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:

It seems there was another post-WW2 program remarkably similar to Project Paperclip, involving Japanese scientists and war criminals rather than the Nazis. The US was a key player in this program, too. As a comparative example, it’s worth studying to better understand why Western superpowers protected known war criminals throughout the mid-late 20th Century.

This program involves a ghastly human experimentation project at the infamous Unit 731, an isolated Japanese Biological Warfare research facility located in what was then Manchuria, a Japanese puppet state, but is now Northeast China. The experimentation project was the brainchild of the notoriously cruel General Shirō Ishii, a scientist who was effectively Japan’s equivalent of Dr. Joseph Mengele.

Researchers at Unit 731, which facilitated secret biological and chemical warfare research, mainly used captured Chinese and Russian subjects for their horrific medical experiments. However, their human guinea pigs also included American, Australian, New Zealand and British prisoners of war.

General Ishii’s medical testing at the secret Manchurian facility included high-voltage electric shock experiments, cyanide poisonings, frostbite studies, biological weapons testing including anthrax, heroin and other drug tests, and injecting prisoners with bacteria from plague-infected fleas procured from mice; live dissections on prisoners were also common and the victims were not even given any painkillers while their bodies were slowly dissected.

The prisoners were referred to as “monkeys” in scientific papers, even though it was common knowledge amongst the Japanese military and in political circles that the test subjects were in fact humans. Tens of thousands of victims died at Unit 731 and its sister sites.

Although less widely reported than Mengele’s medical research at Auschwitz, many historians have compared the hideous medical experiments at Unit 731 to the Nazi medical experiments during the Holocaust.

Parallels with Project Paperclip are numerous. Declassified documents have revealed that after the war ended, large-scale collaboration occurred between America and scientists of Unit 731. What’s more, the insidious Japanese research became the basis for many US military operations – and like the Nazi scientists protected by Project Paperclip, many of Unit 731’s scientists went on to have prominent careers after the war.

Just as the Nazis had made incredible scientific breakthroughs during the war years, it appears Japan was another scientific giant of the era. Germany and Japan obviously got the jump on the rest of the world in the area of medical research by being able to ruthlessly experiment on as many human subjects as they wanted. And this informative and valuable research was desired by both the US and the Soviet Union at the start of the Cold War.

Japan’s scientific breakthroughs most likely explain why General Ishii and all the other Japanese scientists involved in Unit 731 were never tried for war crimes by the US or by any other Allied nation.

A US intelligence cable advised the War Department that the Japanese scientists, “headed by Ishii did violate rules of land warfare,” but that “this expression of opinion is not a recommendation that group be charged and tried as such.”

Further evidence of the United States’ intentions is evidenced by the actions of General Douglas MacArthur. While serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, MacArthur wrote to Washington DC on May 6, 1947 as follows: “Statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as ‘War Crimes’ evidence.”

The following year, in exchange for all their biological warfare research, MacArthur orchestrated a deal with the scientists of Unit 731, including General Ishii, whereby they were secretly granted complete immunity from prosecution. Claims of the horrors Allied POW’s endured at the hands of their Japanese captors were from that point on ignored, and the ensuing Tokyo War Crimes trials omitted reference to Ishii and his staff.

In the decades immediately after the war ended, the Japanese and American governments continuously denied any conspiracy surrounding the legacy of Unit 731.

However, another file from General MacArthur’s headquarters confirms the ugly truth. In it, MacArthur states that in studying General Ishii’s work, “utmost secrecy is essential in order to protect the interests of the United States and to guard against embarrassment”.

Like the US, the Soviets also appear to have secured some of the Japanese scientists’ human experimentation research, for after WW2 a biological weapons facility was built in Sverdlovsk, in the Soviet Union. The Sverdlovsk facility and practices within it are said to have been almost a carbon copy of what was detailed in Unit 731 documents.

Many conspiracy theorists as well as a number of biological weapons researchers claim the US military secretly began testing germ warfare on American citizens without their knowledge. These tests, which were apparently conducted from the 1950’s onwards, are said by some to be based on the science of Unit 731, and include tests still classified by the CIA and the US Army’s Chemical and Biological Warfare laboratories.

The suspicion lingers that many of the US military’s covert biological warfare operations since WW2, including the Vietnam War’s Operation Ranch Hand, may be related to Unit 731 – and Gulf War Syndrome could also be the result of biological warfare directly inspired by General Ishii’s germ warfare experiments.

If by chance Chemtrails – that favorite Tinfoil Hat theory which suggests governments release chemical agents into the skies above populated areas – is one day proven to be a reality, then the Japanese experiments could also be the basis for these as well.

Along with Yamashita’s Gold and Project Paperclip, Unit 731 and its aftermath – including America’s involvement – remained one of the best kept secrets of the post war era. The public finally learned about this dreadful secret in 1993 when then US Defense Secretary William Perry finally declassified army and intelligence records relating to the Japanese human experimentation during WW2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Yep, there are numerous official US Government documents that indicate the Japanese scientists of Unit 731 were granted immunity from prosecution (ala Project Paperclip with Nazi scientists) so that the West could learn from Japan’s human experimentation conducted during WW2.

Yep to think not one Unit 731 criminal (to my knowledge) ever stood trial let alone faced a firing squad. Where's justice when you need it?

Edward wrote: "I had never previously heard of this. This is not to question your statements; but what I can't understand is what "scientific" knowledge were they trying to gain; that anthrax kills people and that un-anesthesized dissection is painful. Duh...."

Actually human experimentation although deplorable is known to be invaluable in scientific circles. Without it scientists are left to make educated guesses or else test on animals and hope a rats spine or a pig's ear have enough similarities to humans.

There's a vast body of evidence to show a lot of the scientific research in the psychiatric experiments the Nazis conducted on prisoners during the Holocaust led to modern mind control programs such as the CIA's MK-Ultra. Without those human experiments those insidious mind manipulation technologies may have taken decades longer to be perfected.

yes ed; the holocaust industry won't allow any other group of people partitioning for reparations.

The "Holocaust Industry"?

Wow. I have never heard of this before but I don't doubt it. What I can't wrap my mind around is that none of the criminals from 731 were put on trial! Seriously.

I also question with Edward also, what were the scientists even hoping to get out of these human experiments? Does anyone know?

yes fay; i'm assuming that unit 731 was a Japanese/American detention center. the doctors were establishing torture methods. some to be used at the Cuban center, Guantanamo. "ya gotta start somewhere".

James wrote: "yes ed; the holocaust industry won't allow any other group of people partitioning for reparations."

Again, why don't you explain what you mean by the "Holocaust Industry"?

yes james; the Japanese/americans held in detention centers during ww 2 pacific conflict. they asked for some compensation from u.s. and were denied. strong aipac lobby group influenced u.s.gov.officals, federal courts to denie any compensation. aipac's thinking is if there is any money going to victims, holocaust gets it first.

James wrote: "yes james; the Japanese/americans held in detention centers during ww 2 pacific conflict. they asked for some compensation from u.s. and were denied. strong aipac lobby group influenced u.s.gov.off..."

I think you have a super philosophy going on. One group of victims do not get compensation, so you blame another lot of victims who did get (some) compensation for enduring what was arguably the worst crime of the 20th Century in the Holocaust.

Again, I think it's a super philosophy you have there...

James wrote: "yes fay; i'm assuming that unit 731 was a Japanese/American detention center. the doctors were establishing torture methods. some to be used at the Cuban center, Guantanamo. "ya gotta start somew..."

Ahhhh, right James.

http://www.unit731.org/
If you browse the site more then you'll find more info. on the experiments and such. Wow, it's just so awful what they did to those people, so cruel...

Lance Morcan wrote: "Yep to think not one Unit 731 criminal (to my knowledge) ever stood trial let alone faced a firing squad. Where's justice when you need it?"

Pretty sure that's correct - not one Unit 731 "scientist" ever went before the Tokyo war crimes trial. That's similar to how the Nazi scientists ushered in to the West after WW2 (via the declassified programs like the CIA's Operation Paperclip and MI6's Operation Matchbox) avoided the Nuremburg Trials.

Speaking of chemtrails, for anyone who wants to add to the topic, there's a discussion thread on them as well: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

There's a Chinese movie called Men Behind the Sun that details this unit. It's not for the faint hearted.

I'd like to see that film.
Unit 731 along with Auschwitz must have been horrible, horrible places - hell on Earth.
Many would rather die than endure them, even if there was a small chance of survival...

Okay here's the aforementioned film in FULL and for FREE!

Men Behind The Sun (Full Movie about Unit 731 - Japan's Auschwitz) -- https://www.goodreads.com/videos/1030...

James Morcan wrote: "Okay here's the aforementioned film in FULL and for FREE!

Men Behind The Sun (Full Movie about Unit 731 - Japan's Auschwitz) -- https://www.goodreads.com/videos/1030......"

Good luck! I couldn't bear to watch the entire film so kudos to you if you can finish it!

Actually I had to stop watching it also...really ghastly!

James Morcan wrote: "Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:

It seems there was another post-WW2 program remarkably similar to Project Paperclip, involving..."
Yup , it's all in the movie. They sure didn't leave anything out. Make sure you haven't eaten for several hours prior and don't expect to either eat or sleep for many hours after watching either. Just ...wtf? What there are just no words so just WTF?!

WTF indeed, Irene -- and you're stronger than I for being able to watch all of that film!

The movie's Wikipedia page, mention this:

"The closing passages reveal that Dr. Ishii cooperates with the Americans, giving them his research and agreeing to work for them. Years later, he is moved to the Korean front, and biological weapons appear on the battlefield shortly thereafter. The Youth Corps involved with 731 are revealed to have led hard lives after the war, kept to the vow that none of their witness to the atrocities be revealed or discussed to the public."

The film spawned three pseudo-sequels:
Laboratory of the Devil (黑太陽731續集之殺人工廠, 1992)
Narrow Escape (死亡列車, 1994)
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (黑太陽─南京大屠殺, 1995)

There is also a 2008 Russian film about Unit 731, called PSYCHOLOGY OF THE KNIFE, which looks much more graphic again...
I Youtubed it and found the trailer - the full movie is also on there also, but whatever you do DO NOT WATCH THIS RUSSIAN MOVIE...It is really savage and incredibly graphic...Netflicks took it down and I think censors wouldn't even give it an NC-17 or X-rating (it has remained UNRATED!)

I feel seriously traumatized just watching the 4 minute trailer for that film...Damn!

UNIT 731 Documentary | Japanese Invasion of China | Second Sino-Japanese War | 1937-45 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdM3_...

Note that this documentary, besides referencing all the victims of human experimentaion, also mentions prisoners being killed in gas chambers...

Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 & the American Cover-up

Factories of Death details the activities of the Japanese army scientists that conducted numerous horrifying experiments upon live human beings. It investigates who from the upper echelons of the Japanese military and political establishments knew of the experiments, also the question of whether or not Allied POWs were subjected to such tests, and the nature of the deal that was brokered with US authorities after the war.

Excerpt from Unit 731 Testimony: Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program:

"Here is a very brief list of what became of some of Unit 731's major players during the postwar years. Each person's wartime research specialty and/or unit affiliation is indicated in parentheses. An asterisk indicates that the person supported the work of Unit 731 as a civilian employee, receiving payment through the Army Laboratory in Tokyo.

"Amitani Shogo* (Tokyo University Laboratory for Communicable Diseases) Remained attached to same facility after the war and received the Asahi Prize for outstanding scientific performance

Ando Koji (Head, Dalian Laboratory) Professor, Tokyo University Laboratory for Communicable Diseases Head, Central Laboratory for Experimental Animals

Asahina Masajiro (Typhus vaccine production team) National Institute of Health Futagi Hideo (Vivisection team leader) Cofounder, Green Cross Corporation

Kasuga Tadayoshi (Dalian Laboratory) Kitasato Research Laboratory Ministry of Education, Pertussis (Whooping cough) Research Team

Kimura Yasushi* (Professor, Kyoto University) Assistant head, Japan Medical Association President, Nagoya City University of Medicine

Kitano Masaji (EHF research, frostbite research) Cofounder, Green Cross Corporation Special Committee for Antarctic Research Ministry of Education, Pertussis Research Team

Kobayashi Rokuzo* (Professor, Keio University) Director, First Division, National Institute of Health

Kojima Saburo* (Tokyo University Laboratory for Communicable Diseases) Director, Second Division, National Institute of Health

Miyagawa Yoneji* (Head, Tokyo University Laboratory for Communicable Diseases) Toshiba Biophysics and Biochemistry Research Laboratory

Murata Yoshisuke (Nanjing, Unit 1644) National Institute of Health Naito Ryoichi (Bacteriological research) Cofounder, Green Cross Corporation

Ogata Tomio* (Assistant professor, Tokyo University Laboratory for Communicable Diseases) Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo University

Ogawa Torn (Nanjing, Unit 1644) Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Nagoya City University

Okamoto Kozo (Pathology research team) Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Kinki University

Sonoguchi Tadao (Biological warfare development) Vice-principal, School of Hygiene of the Japan SelfDefense Forces.

Tanaka Hideo (Plague-carrying fleas team) Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka City University

Toda Shozo* (Professor, Kyoto University) Member of the Special Committee for Antarctic Research President, Kanazawa University

Yanagizawa Ken* (Tuberculosis research team) Head, (5th) National Institute of Health."

There were smaller versions of Unit 731 in China also.

human experimentation and biowarfare facilities Unit 100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_100 and Unit 516 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_516

Senior Sgt. Kazuo Mitomo described some of Unit 100's human experiments:
"I put as much as a gram of heroin into some porridge and gave this porridge to an arrested Chinese citizen who ate it; about 20 minutes later he lost consciousness and remained in that state until he died 15-16 hours later. We knew that such a dose of heroin is fatal, but it did not make any difference to us whether he died or lived. On some of the prisoners I experimented 5-6 times, testing the action of Korean bindweed, bactal and castor oil seeds. One of the prisoners of Russian nationality became so exhausted from the experiments that no more could be performed on him, and Matsui ordered me to kill that Russian by giving him an injection of potassium cyanide. After the injection, the man died at once. Bodies were buried in the unit's cattle cemetery."

The aforementioned post WW2 facility Svertdlovsk was directly inspired by documents the Soviets found in Unit 731.

The closed city of Sverdlovsk had been a major production center of the Soviet military-industrial complex since World War II. It produced tanks, nuclear rockets and other armaments. A major nuclear accident happened in this region in 1957, when a nuclear waste facility exploded (known as the Kyshtym disaster), resulting in the spread of radioactive dust over a thousand square kilometers. The biological weapons facility in Sverdlovsk was built after World War II, using documentation captured in Manchuria from the Japanese germ warfare program.

At the conclusion of the war, Soviet troops invading Manchuria captured many Unit 731 Japanese scientists and learned of their extensive human experimentation through captured documents and prisoner interrogations. Emboldened by these discoveries, Stalin put KGB chief Lavrenty Beria in charge of a new BW program.

There was also a major anthrax leak from this facility in the 1950s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlo...

James Morcan wrote: "The "Holocaust Industry"?"

What IS a Holocaust Industry??

The "Holocaust Industry" refers to what some crazy deniers think - that the history of the genocide is a fabrication just to make money.

It'd be like calling victims of these Japanese experiments and killings the Unit 731 Industry.

James Morcan wrote: "UNIT 731 Documentary | Japanese Invasion of China | Second Sino-Japanese War | 1937-45 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdM3_...

Note that this documentary, besides referencing all the victim..."

Where is the Russian one? I'm only going to watch the preview...

The Russian film on Unit 731, which looks like one of the most ghastly movies ever made, is called PSYCHOLOGY OF A KNIFE.

Here's the trailer (which traumatized me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNxqW...

Full movie is also on YouTube...but DO NOT watch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Surgeon General Shirō Ishii was a Japanese army medical officer, microbiologist and the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shir%C5...

Ishii was essentially the Japanese equivalent of Auschwitz' Dr. Joseph Mengele (aka the Angel of Death)...

In other words, Ishii was one sick, twisted ________!

Here are a couple of books I found on him:

The Ishii Legacy



Deciphering the History of Japanese War Atrocities: The Story of Doctor and General Shiro Ishii

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.

Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism

Unit 731: The Horrors of the ‘Asian Auschwitz’ and Why You’ve Never Heard of It http://firsttoknow.com/unit-731-horro...

Imperial Japan’s Unit 731 http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-...

"The Japanese narrative has been that these claims are exaggerated and are a part of Communist propaganda to defame the country and paint it as a hub of war criminals. However, the Chinese sources speak of various units acting against its civilian population."

The book The Knights of the Bushido by Lord Russel of Liverpool touches slightly on the subject

Joe wrote: "The book The Knights of the Bushido by Lord Russel of Liverpool touches slightly on the subject"

Okay, what does it say about it?

Unit 731 is now on my personal reading list. When I lived in China in 1995-1998, certain derogatory phrases included references to "rì gou" (Japanese dog), hearkening back to the Chinese who helped the Japanese. That Unit, and other atrocities, including those in Nanking, as well as their behavior in the rest of Asia, put the Japanese of that war firmly on the level of the Nazi's, if not lower. Why the world doesn't know this is another topic for another time.

Yeah, possibly even more extreme in their depravity than the Nazis.

Also, I remember reading somewhere that the West, including the U.S., took the written reports that emanated from Unit 731, Nanking, and other mad science experiments -- for medical purposes.

Mark wrote: "Also, I remember reading somewhere that the West, including the U.S., took the written reports that emanated from Unit 731, Nanking, and other mad science experiments -- for medical purposes."

They did indeed. And like many Nazi scientists, the U.S. gave amnesty to ALL Japanese scientists who carried out the horrors of the Unit 731 human experimentation.

Even war "hero" General MacArthur was involved in this cover-up (on the record, in fact).

If you replace the words "Nazi Germany" with "Japan", and replace "Auschwitz" with "Unit 731", and replace "Operation Paperclip" with "US protection of Japanese war criminals", you have EXACTLY the same thing all over again...

American cover-up of Japanese war crimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...

The American cover-up of Japanese war crimes occurred after the end of World War II, when the occupying US government granted political immunity to military personnel who had engaged in human experimentation and other crimes against humanity, predominantly in mainland China.[1][2] The pardon of Japanese war criminals, among whom were Unit 731's commanding officers General Shiro Ishii and General Masaji Kitano, was overseen by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in September 1945. While a series of war tribunals and trials was organized, many of the high-ranking officials and doctors who devised and respectively performed the experiments were pardoned and never brought to justice. As many as 12,000 people, most of them Chinese, died in Unit 731 alone and many more died in other facilities, such as Unit 100 and in field experiments throughout Manchuria.[3][4]

Contents [hide]
1 Historical background
2 Cover-up
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

Historical background[edit]
Negative sentiments had existed historically between Japan and China, but those rarely materialized in armed conflict prior to the early 1930s. Japanese militarism under Emperor Hirohito had escalated from the Mukden incident in September 1931, when members of the Japanese Imperial Army planted a bomb on a Japanese-owned railway track in Manchuria. They used this "attack" as a justification for a full-scale invasion of Manchuria and the establishment of the Manchukuo state.[5] The immediate predecessor events of the Manchurian invasion include the abovementioned Mukden Incident and the preceding Wanpaoshan Incident in July 1931, which constituted a dispute between Chinese and Korean farmers in Manchuria. The build-up to the invasion was minimal and involved no deaths on either side of the conflict. The US was mostly unaware of the events that occurred outside the main Pacific theatre, which gave the Japanese army, headed by the Kwantung Army, political and military freedom to take advantage of a technologically and strategically inferior China. American propaganda depicted Japanese militants as sub-human animals, not unlike rodents or snakes. The perception of the Japanese soldier in the US during the war was that of a lowly, depraved and inherently repulsive being, whose depictions in propaganda pieces varied. They were often depicted as animals traditionally associated with depravity and as such intuitively instilled disgust.[6]

Cover-up[edit]
The American government sent General MacArthur to oversee rebuilding post-war Japan and the shift to a democracy from a previously feudalist system of governance. MacArthur was also responsible for gathering data on biological warfare, which was obtained through human experimentation. The US government offered full political immunity to high-ranking officials who were instrumental in perpetuating crimes against humanity. Among those was Shiro Ishii, the commander of Unit 731. Hirohito, as emperor, gave his consent regarding the policies and activities of Unit 731, Unit 100 and other human experimentation facilities. He supported the militant agenda, but there is no evidence that he was thoroughly informed on most of the atrocities that occurred within the facilities. He, as was the case with many others, was also granted immunity. MacArthur, abiding by the Potsdam Declaration, gathered a jury for the Tokyo trials, where a number of Japanese officials were successfully tried and convicted.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...

As mentioned, the Soviets also appear to have secured some of the Japanese scientists’ human experimentation research, for after WW2 a biological weapons facility was built in Sverdlovsk, in the Soviet Union. The Sverdlovsk facility and practices within it are said to have been almost a carbon copy of what was detailed in Unit 731 documents.

Now...was the following Anthrax leak in the 1970s, in the exact same place, linked to this? Pretty sure it would've been, considering a lot of the U.S. germ warfare research/experimentation spiraled out of Japanese or Nazi research...So given Stalin seemed to be taking things even further, with Unit 731 replica experiments (right down to the floor plans of the Japanese facilities in China!), it seems possible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlo...

"The biological weapons facility in Sverdlovsk was built after World War II, using documentation captured in Manchuria from the Japanese germ warfare program."

Keep in mind Unit 731, one of the Japanese units focused on direct human experiments (on captured humans), was only one of hundreds scientific research projects the Japanese did in China that the Soviets and US captured the records of post WW2. There were many others where millions of Chinese were experimented on from the air (spraying chemicals etc), or other ghastly experiments. So Unit 731 is essentially the umbrella term for all the vast human experimentation the Japanese did to China during WW2, a bit like how Auschwitz is sometimes used an umbrella term for the Holocaust in general.

Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 & the American Cover-up

The New York Times: A New Look at Japan's Wartime Atrocities and a U.S. Cover-Up https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/...

Conspiracy FACT #10: U.S. cover-up of the ‘Asian Auschwitz’ (Unit 731) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmJI5...

Unit 731: America's War Crimes Cover-Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4Nl...
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese conducted illegal weapons and medical experiments on living humans. Why did the West not know about this?