[lesstyzing]

I read the Unit 731 Wikipedia page recently and almost wished I hadn’t. Im surprised I’d never heard about it and neither had any of my friends. Not that it’s a competition, but some of the atrocities I read about on that page were worse than any other World War atrocity I know and it seems like it’s just been swept under the rug.

[ghostcluster]

Pretty gruesome reading.

I had never heard of this either:

> During the final months of World War II, codenamed Cherry Blossoms at Night, the plan of Unit 731 was to use kamikaze pilots to infest San Diego, California, with the plague. The plan was scheduled to launch on 22 September 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Biological_warfare

[krapp]

It's swept under the rug because the US pardoned many of the the perpetrators (such as Shiro Ishii) in exchange for data about their experiments, which were then continued under the US biological weapons program, and projects like MKULTRA.

[oefrha]

I was aware of the crimes of Unit 731 and how the U.S. granted immunity to the worst perpetrators in exchange for data, but never read about the details. I did that just now; what a horrifying rabbit hole that was. One disgusting bit:

> Although the Soviet authorities wished the prosecutions to take place, the United States objected after the reports of the investigating US microbiologists. Among these was Edwin Hill, the Chief of Fort Detrick, whose report stated that the information was "absolutely invaluable;" it "could never have been obtained in the United States because of scruples attached to experiments on humans" and "the information was obtained fairly cheaply."[7] On May 6, 1947, Douglas MacArthur wrote to Washington, D.C., 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."[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirō_Ishii#War_crime_immunity

Basically, everywhere you look you can find these absolute monsters at the helm who drool at “cheaply obtained” and “absolutely invaluable” data from gruesome live human experimentation. Some were just given the opportunity to carry out more of it.

[saiya-jin]

Its almost like when conditions are right, even people we consider normally on the moral side, end up flushing down down the toilet any bit of humanity, because of some 'benefits'. Justification can be as weak as general threat, terrorism, preparing for future 'if something happens'.

[WastingMyTime89]

It’s pretty well known that the Japanese Empire did some of the worst atrocities of the Second World War. Their number of victims is roughly in line with that of the Nazi. I will hasard that the USA doesn’t like to talk about Unit 731 because they gave immunity to the researchers in exchange for the results of their research on chemical weapons in an operation mirroring Paper Clip for rockets.

[pmoriarty]

There's a horror movie about Unit 731 called "Men Behind the Sun"[1]... It's not high art or anything, but it is super disturbing... one of the most horrific things I've ever seen.

[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Behind_the_Sun