World War II was a time of devastating destruction and inhumane experiments. Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii of the Imperial Japanese Army was also a microbiologist that led the infamous Unit 731. This unit used forced and often lethal human experimentation during the war, collecting data to wage terrible biological warfare.
Ishii began experiments in 1932 as a secret project for the Japanese military at Zhongma Fortress. In 1936, Unit 731 formed and a large compound was built outside the city of Harbin, China for experimentation.
The research was secret, and Unit 731 was officially tasked with water-purification work. He began field tests of germ warfare agents on Chinese prisoners of war and on the battlefield in 1942. The Unit 731 headquarters was blown up and all 150 subjects killed by the Japanese when defeat was imminent to destroy evidence.
Lucky for Ishii, he gained immunity from war-crimes in 1946 before the Tokyo tribunal. The price? A full disclosure of germ warfare data he obtained from human experimentation.
The information was considered invaluable since experimenting on humans isn't acceptable for the U.S. There's speculation as to where he ended up after the war. Some say he went to Maryland to advise on bioweapons and others say he stayed in Japan where he did examinations and treatments for free.
He died of throat cancer at the age of 67 and was never convicted of a war crime.
