Shiro Ishii

Probably, most of the world does not know nor have heard about Ishii Shiro. He was a japanese which studied medicine at the Kyoto imperial University in 1922 and, because of his skills, got a post graduate there later. He was assigned at the 1st Army Hospital and Army Medical School. He was the lieutenant general of Unit 731.

In 1928 he travelled around Europe for two years. During his journey, he did an extensive research on biological warfare and chemical warfare from WW1 onwards. At that time, various western countries were researching biological weapons.

Although in 1925 the Geneva Convention prohibited the use of bacteriological and chemical weapons, Ishii urged the military leaders so they can start researching these weapons (He returned in 1930). He knew that his plans contravened the convention, but he also knew that these were banned for something. And that has one explanation: they are highly dangerous and can be very useful in war.

In 1931, the japanese invaded northeast of China. The japanese claimed that Chinese forces had destroyed the railway at Lake Liu near Mukden in southern Manchuria. This had actually been done by japanese themselves, this was just a pretext to invade. Ishii started opening research units. In 1932 he opened a subgroup in Manchukuo were human experiments were immediately made after it's creation.

On August 1, 1940, the Ishii Unit was renamed the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army, although after 1941 it was more commonly referred to as Manchukuo Unit 731. Unit 731 was composed of four sections: research, experiments, antiepidemic, and water purification and productions.