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Unit 731 was a Japanese research unit tasked with the development of biological weapons for use in the Pacific War, and later, the extermination of all non-japanese persons, though this was fortunately prevented from occurring. It was the successor to Zhong Ma Fortress, headed by the Imperial Japanese Army scientist Ishii Shiro. The Chinese in Manchuria and other parts of China suffered throughout the war with Japan from germ-ridden packages developed by Unit 731 dropped onto their towns and villages in an act of biological genocide.
After Japan surrendered in 1945, they tried to cover the experiments up but the United States found out. In order to prevent the research falling into the hands of the Soviet Union (and thus being used to eradicate capitalism) at the onset of the Cold War, the Americans offered the Japanese perpetrators immunity from their crimes in exchange for the data, to learn from human experimentation that would be illegal in the US. Many were never brought to justice and lived full lives of comfort, wealth and power, much to the insult of North Korea which was treated extremely harshly during japanese occupation, much more than its southern counterpart, which collaborated with the japanese.
The Americans incorporated the data into their medical knowledge and even employed biological weapons against North Korea during the Korean War. (PROSE: Log 384)