By Justin Lu Class of 2025

Unit 731: The Haunting Legacy of Ishii Shiro

Editor’s Note: The History Fellowship program offers students the opportunity to conduct college-level independent research on a historical topic of their choice, resulting in a substantial academic paper and oral presentation. Through guided discussions, structured support, and access to both on- and off-campus sources, students learn and apply the practices of professional historians.

Six prison guards forcibly submerge a man’s arm into a tub of ice. The man screams and begs them to let go, seeking any last ounce of humanity. The guards stare coldly at him, their faces devoid of expression. A doctor in an all-white lab coat stands behind a glass panel and barks an order in a foreign language. Then, the guards finally release him. The man realizes that, to his horror, his arm is now frozen solid with a thin film of ice covering every inch of his skin. He falls to his knees, catching his breath, but the doctor shouts something from behind the glass. The man looks up to see the guards with a lit blowtorch.

A woman screams as officers force her to reproduce with another prisoner. They have ordered the male prisoner at gunpoint to rape and impregnate her after being infected with syphilis. Once pregnant, the torturers will then expose the woman to various diseases, dangerous chemicals, gas chambers, bullet wounds, and shrapnel injuries caused by explosives. Slowly, as her life drains from her body, three men with white coats and clipboards will observe her. With her dying breaths, she will beg them to spare her unborn child. The doctors will then open up her stomach and carefully study the damage done to the fetus.

These are not fictional scenes from some dystopian science fiction novel or Hollywood horror film. They are real stories, just a few among the thousands involving victims who died at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army’s biological warfare program, Unit 731. If you grew up in North America, however, chances are you have never heard of Unit 731. Ishii Shiro founded Unit 731 in 1935 in the Pingfang District of Harbin, China. Ishii and his team not only investigated the possibility of using biological weapons in war but also carried out sadistic experiments on human subjects.

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