On
this date, October 9, 1959, Shirō Ishii, the Japanese Lieutenant General of
Unit 731 died of throat cancer. I will post information about him from
Wikipedia and other links.
 |
|
|
Native name
|
石井 四郎
|
Born
|
June 25, 1892
Chiba prefecture, Japan |
Died
|
October 9, 1959 (aged 67)
Tokyo, Japan |
Allegiance
|
Empire of Japan
|
Service/branch
|
Imperial Japanese Army
|
Years of service
|
1921 -1945
|
Rank
|
Lieutenant General
|
Commands held
|
Unit 731, Kwantung Army
|
Battles/wars
|
|
Shirō Ishii
(石井 四郎 Ishii Shirō, June 25, 1892 – October 9,
1959) was a Japanese microbiologist and the lieutenant general of Unit 731, a biological
warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army involved in human experimentation
during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
 |
|
General Shirō Ishii (SOURCE: http://www.deviantart.com/#/art/Shiro-Ishii-Compilation-193699035?hf=1)
|
Biography
Early
years
Ishii
was born in the former Shibayama Village of Sanbu District in Chiba Prefecture,
and studied medicine at Kyoto Imperial University. He was commissioned into the
Imperial Japanese Army in 1921 as an army surgeon, second class (surgeon
lieutenant). In 1922 was assigned to the 1st Army Hospital and Army Medical
School in Tokyo. There his work impressed his superiors enough to gain him, two
years later, post-graduate medical schooling back at the Kyoto Imperial
University.
In
1925, Ishii was promoted to army surgeon, first class (surgeon captain).
Beginning in 1928, he took a two-year tour of the West. In his travels, he did
extensive research on the effects of biological warfare and chemical warfare
developments from World War I onwards. It was a highly successful mission and
helped win him the patronage of Sadao Araki, Minister of the Army. He received
promotion to senior army surgeon, third class (surgeon major), in January 1931.
 |
|
General Shirō Ishii (SOURCE: http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2012/08/savages-of-rising-sun.html)
|
Biological
warfare project
In
1932, he began his preliminary experiments in biological warfare as a secret
project for the Japanese military at Zhongma Fortress. He was promoted to
senior army surgeon, second class (surgeon lieutenant-colonel) in 1935. In
1936, Unit 731 was formed. Ishii built a huge compound–more than 150 buildings
over six square kilometers–outside the city of Harbin, China. The research was
secret, and the cover story was that Unit 731 was engaged in water-purification
work.
Ishii
was promoted to senior army surgeon, first class (surgeon colonel) in 1938. On
9 February 1939, he gave a lecture on bacteriological warfare in the War
Ministry Grand Conference Hall in Tokyo. One of the attendees was prince Yasuhito
Chichibu, Hirohito's (the 124th Emperor of Japan) brother, who also watched vivisection
demonstrations by Ishii. From 1940, Ishii was appointed Chief of the Biological
Warfare Section of the Kwantung Army, holding the post simultaneously with that
of the Bacteriological Department of the Army Medical Academy, and was promoted
to surgeon major-general in March of the following year. In 1942, Ishii began
field tests of germ warfare agents developed, and various methods of dispersion
(e.g. via firearms, bombs etc.) both on Chinese prisoners of war and
operationally on battlefields and against civilians in Chinese cities. Some
historians estimate that tens of thousands died as a result of the bio-weapons
(including bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax and others) deployed. His unit also
conducted physiological experiments on human subjects, including vivisections,
forced abortions, and simulated strokes, heart attacks, frostbite and hypothermia.
From
1942–1945, Ishii was Chief of the Medical Section of the Japanese First Army.
He was promoted to surgeon lieutenant-general in March 1945. In the final days
of the Pacific War and in the face of imminent defeat, Japanese troops blew up
the headquarters of Unit 731 in order to destroy evidence of the research done
there. As part of the cover-up, Ishii ordered 150 remaining subjects killed.
More than ten thousand people, from which around 600 every year were provided
by the kempeitai (Japanese secret police), were subjects of the
experimentation conducted by Unit 731. These were called by Ishii and his peers
maruta (丸太)
"logs," a term originating either in the view of subjects as inert,
expendable entities or possibly in the cover story told to locals that the
facility contained a sawmill.
 |
|
General Shirō Ishii (SOURCE: http://shiroishii.deviantart.com/art/Shiro-Ishii-1892-1959-163013801)
|
Immunity
Arrested
by the US occupation authorities at the end of World War II, Ishii and other
Unit 731 leaders were to be thoroughly interrogated by the Soviet authorities.
Instead Ishii and his team managed to negotiate and receive immunity in 1946
from war-crimes prosecution before the Tokyo tribunal in exchange for their
full disclosure of germ warfare data based on human experimentation. Although
the Soviet Russian authorities wished the prosecutions to take place, the USA
objected after the reports of the investigating US microbiologists. Among these
was Dr. Edwin Hill (Chief of Fort Detrick), whose report stated that the
information was "absolutely invaluable", it "could never have
been obtained in the USA because of scruples attached to experiments on
humans", and "the information was obtained fairly cheaply". On 6
May 1947, Douglas MacArthur wrote to Washington that "additional data,
possibly some 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 deal was concluded
in 1948. In this way Ishii was never prosecuted for any war crimes.
Richard
Drayton, a Cambridge University history lecturer, claimed that Ishii later went
to Maryland to advise on bioweapons. If Ishii did travel to Maryland, it was
most likely to advise at Fort Detrick, a well known major biomedical
experimentation facility in Frederick, Maryland. Another source says he stayed
in Japan, where he opened a clinic where he did examinations and treatments for
free. He was especially concerned with the health of children. In his final
years he converted to Christianity. He kept a diary but it did not reference
any of his wartime activity. He died of throat cancer at the age of 67, having, according to his daughter, converted to Catholicism on his death bed.
OTHER
LINKS:
No comments:
Post a Comment