Chemical And Biological Warfare Research And Development In The Second World War (Essay Sample)

Unit 731
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
Introduction
Unit 731 was a covert chemical and biological warfare research and development in the Second World War. Second World War happened between the years 1939-1945. Unit 731 was originally known as epidemic prevention and water supply unit. The unit was based in Habib district, Pingfang. Shiro Ishii was the leader of the unit (Pavlin et al, 1997). Ishii was a very educated man. He had a degree from Kyoto Imperial University. Besides the degree, he went for further studies away from Japan. Moreover, he took trips to various laboratories and clinics in more than twenty countries. He decided to use his knowledge to transform Japan. He believed the experiments would be useful to Japan against its enemies.
Unit 731 conducted human experiments without the use of anaesthetics (Pavlin et al, 1997). Chinese were used more often in these experiments during the War. The unit was split up without delay after the war. Unit 731 had been separated into eight divisions. These divisions were; bacteriological research division, field experiments and warfare research division, water filter production division, bacteria mass production and storage division, educational division, supplies division, general affairs division, clinical diagnosis division (Williams et al, 1989). Each division specialized in its assigned task. The eight divisions conducted most lethal human experiments ever in history.
Experiments conducted by unit 731
Internal body organs dismemberment was one of the experiments. As the name suggests, an internal body was being relocated to other parts of the body. These experiments were conducted to learn the effects of blood loss (Williams et al, 1989). Initially, injured soldiers were used in these experiments. However, during the World War II, human beings were used as specimen without the use of anaesthetics. Russia and Chinese civilians were majorly used in these experiments. Limb amputations were mainly done to study blood loss.
Vivisection experiments were also conducted during the second Sio- Japanese war. The purpose of vivisection was to practice surgery. Anaesthetics were not used during vivisection. Moreover, multiple surgeries would be done on one individual before the person killed. In some situations, vivisections were done to observe the effects of diseases on internal body organs (Williams et al, 1989). Crude experiments that were conducted during vivisection included: stomach removal and attachment of intestines to the oesophagus.
Lethal injections were done by unit 731. As discussed earlier, one of the divisions was to deal with bacteriological research. This division researched on diseases such as anthrax, cholera, bubonic plague, tuberculosis and typhoid (Pavlin et al, 1997). The bacteria of these diseases were injected into human bodies and effects of the diseases were studied. Since many people were living in communal cells, the diseases easily spread killing many people. Moreover, unit 731 was also injecting human beings with blood from animals.
Frostbite experiments were also conducted by unit 731. In these experiments, humans were subjected to extreme temperatures (Pavlin et al, 1997). For instance, an individual would be subjected to high temperatures and then very cold water is poured on the affected areas especially toes for frostbite to develop. Additionally, human limbs would be subjected to very low temperatures.
Shiro Ishii majorly focused on biological warfare experiments. Advancements in warfare had been experienced after the First World War. For instance, chlorine gas was used in the second battle of Ypres (Pavlin et al, 1997). Ishii developed a bomb which would drop infected flies in a particular. The flies would spread diseases to the area under attack. Since the Chinese were considered to be weak by the Japanese, they were used in these biological experiments.
Weapons testing were also conducted by unit 731 during the Second World War. In these experiments, individuals were taken to a target field and tied to posts so that they would not escape (Pavlin et al, 1997). Then plague spreading bombs would be dropped in the field. They were used as target practice. Moreover, captured Chinese soldiers were used as bayonet practice by the Japanese Army.
Unit 7...