During World War II, Japan's Unit 731 committed heinous crimes, and they carried out inhumane acts such as experiments on living people and bacteriological experiments. However, after the war, this unit was not liquidated, but was protected by the US military in exchange for its 14 years of test materials. Today, the United States has established 336 biological laboratories around the world, and the true purpose of these laboratories is chilling. Didn't Unit 731 disappear, but just changed its name and continued to exist in the form of a biological laboratory for the US military?
Crimes of Unit 731
Unit 731 was the secret unit number of the Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the Japanese Kwantung Army during World War II. This unit is ostensibly engaged in epidemic prevention and water supply, but in fact it is conducting heinous human experiments.
Unit 731 is stationed in the Pingfang District of Harbin, northeast China, covering an area of 6.3 square kilometers. On this land, the Japanese army built airfields, railways, and various facilities, and also set aside a "special zone" for the illegal detention of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war. These people became the subjects of live experiments on Unit 731 and suffered inhuman torture.
According to incomplete statistics, Unit 731 has conducted at least 3,000 bacteriological experiments in 14 years, with tens of thousands of victims. They inoculated plague, cholera, and other deadly bacteria into living people to observe the development of the disease, put the human body into a hyperbaric chamber to record the process of human tissue rupture, and froze the human body to a few tens of degrees below zero, and then splashed boiling water on the scalded body to test the limit of the human body's endurance...... All kinds of cruel acts are horrible.
What is even more shocking is that these inhumane experiments were not accidental, but part of Unit 731's long-term and systematic implementation of bacteriological warfare. They used live experiments to study the effects of various bacteria on the human body in order to create the most effective biological weapons.
Shiro Ishii, the leader of Unit 731, is an out-and-out war criminal. He personally ordered wells in several parts of northeastern China to be stocked with plague germs, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of local infections. During the Nanjing Massacre, Shiro Ishii ordered Unit 731 to make poison gas bombs and massacre Chinese civilians.
However, it is hard to believe that after the war, Unit 731 was not punished as it should be. In 1945, the Soviet Red Army invaded Harbin and arrested Shiro Ishii and others for a time. However, the U.S. military is very interested in Shiro Ishii, and they want to get data from Unit 731's human experiments over the years.
As a result, the U.S. military secretly took Shiro Ishii to Japan and signed the infamous "Kamakura Agreement" with him. According to the agreement, Shiro Ishii provided the U.S. military with all the experimental materials of Unit 731, and in exchange, the U.S. military promised not to pursue Shiro Ishii for war crimes.
In this way, the leaders of Unit 731, who caused countless tragedies, escaped the punishment of the law. Some of them went to the United States to become military scientists, some returned to Japan and became professors in medical schools, and some even became high-ranking officials of the Japanese Defense Agency, but the victims who died tragically at their hands did not even have a single account.
Today, when we look back on the heinous crimes of Unit 731, our hearts are still full of indignation. But what is even more alarming is that the ghost of Unit 731 did not dissipate with the end of the war, but continues to this day in another form. The purpose of the US military's receipt of the experimental data of Unit 731 is obviously not for justice, but to master these terrible biological weapons.
The current state of the U.S. military's biological laboratories
More than 70 years have passed since the end of World War II, but the crimes committed by Unit 731 have not been forgotten with the passage of time. On the contrary, these evils seem to be perpetuating in another form to this day.
In recent years, the United States has established a large number of biological laboratories around the world, and their number and distribution are staggering. According to incomplete statistics, the United States has established more than 200 biological laboratories in 25 countries around the world, and in the United States, the number is as high as more than 400.
The existence of these laboratories is not illegal in itself, but their true purpose is thought-provoking. The United States claims that these laboratories are set up to study pathogens and develop vaccines, and are an important guarantee for maintaining global public health security. Confusingly, however, most of these labs are located on U.S. military bases overseas or in countries that cooperate with the U.S. military, rather than in the U.S., where medical research institutions are located.
What is even more troubling is that the operations of these laboratories are extremely secretive, and the local government and the public do not know what is going on inside them, or even the exact location of the laboratories. This highly confidential practice raises doubts about whether there is any shady activity involved.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine. During the operation, the Russian army captured the Merev biological laboratory in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. This laboratory, one of the many biological laboratories set up by the United States in Ukraine, was supposed to be top secret. However, due to the suddenness of the incident, the staff of the laboratory evacuated in a hurry, and a large number of documents that were not destroyed in time were captured by the Russian army.
These documents uncover the tip of the iceberg of the biological laboratories of the US military, and their contents are shocking. It turned out that this laboratory had been conducting highly dangerous virus experiments, including research on deadly viruses such as plague, anthrax, and smallpox. What's even more terrifying is that the laboratory actually used locals to conduct live experiments, testing the lethality of the virus at the cost of their lives.
Documents show that more than 4,000 people in the Merev laboratory alone have been used for human trials of various drugs and viruses, of which 200 have been hospitalized and 20 have died directly. And all this is done in secret without the knowledge of the locals.
After the news was exposed, it caused an uproar in the international community. The Ukrainian people are outraged, and they can't believe that the US military stationed in their own country is actually experimenting with their own people. And for Russia, this is undoubtedly a bombshell. The Russian side said that what the United States has done in Ukraine has seriously violated international law and trampled on human rights, and must be condemned and sanctioned.
The United States denied this, saying that the accusations were purely Russia's "information warfare". However, the documentary evidence of the Merev laboratory is conclusive, and the various controversies caused by the US biological laboratory in many countries before the US side of the US side pale in the defense.
The Merev laboratory incident has torn off a corner of the mystery of the US military's biological laboratory, but people still know little about its full picture. How many such laboratories are still operating in the shadows in dozens of countries around the world, and what kind of terrible tests are they conducting? All of this, I am afraid, will require continuous supervision and investigation by the international community.
The hazards of the biological laboratories of the US military
As the U.S. military's biological laboratories expand around the world, the dangers they bring are becoming increasingly apparent. These laboratories are time bombs that could detonate a public health crisis at any time.
First of all, these laboratories frequently leak viruses during the research process, posing a serious threat to the lives and safety of the people in the host countries. In August 2019, the refrigeration equipment of a biological laboratory in the city of Odessa, Ukraine, malfunctioned, resulting in the leakage of stored samples of the virus. After the accident, nearby residents developed a large number of symptoms of unexplained illness, and local hospitals were overcrowded. Even more worrying is the fact that a few days after the accident, there was also a mass death of poultry and livestock in the city of Odessa, suspected of being infected with the leaked virus.
Similar incidents are not isolated cases. Back in 2009, a leak in a biological laboratory in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv Oblast led to a spike in local flu cases, hundreds of infections and dozens of deaths. In 2018, another unidentified illness broke out in Ukraine's Odessa Oblast, where the patient had symptoms such as high fever and vomiting, which local media suspected was related to a U.S. military laboratory.
Second, the U.S. military's biological laboratories also used local people to conduct human experiments, disregarding human lives. At a U.S. military laboratory in Tbilisi, Georgia, locals were secretly recruited for vaccine trials. These vaccines have not been fully clinically tested and their safety is not guaranteed. Between 2015 and 2016 alone, 73 volunteers died after vaccination. What is even more outrageous is that the family of the deceased was intimidated and threatened when they demanded a reasonable explanation from the laboratory.
On the African continent, the black hand of the US military's biological laboratories has reached out to the most innocent babies. In 2019, a U.S.-funded laboratory in Kenya was exposed that had been conducting human trials of malaria vaccines using local infants. According to people familiar with the matter, the lab recruits babies from poor families for $40 each to vaccinate them with vaccines that have not been rigorously tested. In the past five years, at least 130 babies have died after vaccination, and many more have developed serious health problems. However, the lab has been secretive about it.
Finally, the US military's biological laboratories are also secretly developing new types of biological weapons, which pose a threat to the security of all mankind. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, a large amount of evidence related to the development of biological weapons was found in the documents of the US military laboratory seized in Ukraine. The documents suggest that the U.S. military is using these labs to secretly develop biological weapons capable of targeting specific races and regions. Once these weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, the consequences will be unimaginable.
In Busan, South Korea, the local people have repeatedly held large-scale demonstrations to demand the withdrawal of US troops from the biological laboratory located in the city center. People are worried that this laboratory is a secret base for the US military to develop biological weapons, and if it is leaked, the whole of Busan will fall into a biological disaster. Although the U.S. military has denied this, the concerns of the local population are not unfounded. After all, the United States is one of the few countries in the world that refuses to sign the Biological Weapons Convention.
The sins of Unit 731 continue
It has been more than 70 years since the end of World War II, but the heinous crimes committed by Unit 731 have never been completely liquidated. On the contrary, under the protection of the US military, the evil shadow of this unit continues to this day.
After the war, the U.S. military secretly took over the experimental data and part of the facilities of Unit 731, and quietly took Shiro Ishii and other war criminals to the United States. There, these war criminals, who should have been brought to justice, were treated favorably by the US military. Colonel Sams, head of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, personally met with Shiro Ishii and praised his "tremendous achievements" in the field of biological warfare research.
Colonel Sams's remarks exposed the US military's covetousness for the research results of Unit 731. In fact, the U.S. military has always had a great deal of interest in human experiments conducted by the Japanese army in China. They believe that although these experiments are cruel, the data obtained are of great value for the development of biological weapons by the US military. Therefore, the U.S. military did not hesitate to violate justice and humanity and chose to shield the war criminals of Unit 731 in exchange for the experimental data in their hands.
With the connivance of the U.S. military, the survivors of Unit 731 put on white coats again and continued to engage in biological weapons research. Shiro Ishii and others have worked for the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Fort Detrick Biological Weapons Research Center and other institutions, and have passed on their experience and technology in conducting human experiments in China to the US military. It can be said that it is with the help of these war criminals that the US military's biological weapons research has developed by leaps and bounds.
Even more troubling is the fact that the U.S. military used biological weapons several times during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In 1952, the U.S. military spread plague-infected fleas over the Korean battlefield, resulting in a large number of deaths among North Korean civilians. From 1964 to 1968, the U.S. military secretly tested biological weapons in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and other places, spreading a large number of mosquitoes to spread the yellow fever virus and causing epidemics in the local area.
All these evil deeds are reminiscent of the crimes committed by Unit 731 in China in those years. History is not over, the wounds of war have never healed, and the shadow of sin still hangs over our heads.
Today, the U.S. military has built a vast network of biological laboratories around the world, some of which have even been accused of being involved in biological weapons research. The documents leaked from Ukraine's Merev laboratory have given the world a new understanding of the US military's biological weapons ambitions. In these laboratories, human experiments, virus cultures, and other chilling practices are still carried out in secret, and fresh lives are sacrificed to be slaughtered on the bench.
The wheel of history is rolling forward, and human civilization is constantly improving. But in the process, we have never been able to shake off the shadow of war and crime. The spirits of Unit 731 have never been dispersed, and their crimes have never been completely liquidated. Today, when we condemn the US military for establishing biological laboratories around the world, we should ask more whether we can learn the lessons of history and prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
Human society needs justice, conscience, and respect for life. The sins of Unit 731 should not be forgotten, but they should not be repeated. This is the historical responsibility of our generation, and it is also the best consolation to the countless innocent souls.