User:Jocto27/sandbox

Biological warfare project[edit source]

By 1927, Ishii was advocating for the creation of a Japanese bio-weapons program, and in 1928 began a two-year tour of the West where he did extensive research on the effects of biological warfare and chemical warfare developments from World War I onwards. Ishii's travels were highly successful and helped win him the patronage of Sadao Araki, the Japanese Minister of the Army. Ishii also received the backing of Araki's ideological rival in the army, Major-General Tetsuzan Nagata, who was later considered Ishii's "most active supporter" at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. In January 1931, Ishii received promotion to Senior Army Surgeon, Third Class (surgeon major).

In 1935, Ishii was promoted to Senior Army Surgeon, Second Class (surgeon lieutenant-colonel). On August 1st, 1936, Ishii would be given formal control over Unit 731 and its research facilities. In these facilities Ishii and his men would perform heinous experiments on the living, including but not limited to, breeding of plague rats and subsequent infection of living subjects, forced pregnancies, counteraction of frostbite by inducing and trying to cure without anesthetics, and open vivisections on fully aware subjects with little to no pain medication. Towards the end of the war Ishii would father a terrible plan to spread plague fleas along the populace west coast of the US, known as Operation Cherry Blossoms it thankfully couldn't reach fruition as the war came to a close. Ishii and the Japanese government would try to cover up the facilities and experiments, but ultimately failed with their secret university lab in Tokyo and their main lab in Harbin, China, not being able to be fully covered up. Harbin still stands to this day as a museum to the unit and the atrocities they committed.