Some Chinese prisoners were dissected live and without anesthetic

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040602022.html

War Lives On at Museum of the Macabre

As Relations Sour, China Plans to Expand Display of Imperial Japan's Atrocities

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 7, 2006; Page A14

HARBIN, China -- More than 200,000 Chinese filed through the remains of Japan's notorious Unit 731 here last year, visiting the ghosts of World War II. In exhibits mounted throughout the bleak headquarters building, they saw wrenching descriptions of biological warfare experiments carried out on thousands of Chinese prisoners from 1939 to 1945.

The phrase "Do not forget us" has been inscribed on the wall of one room, where visitors can see the names and photos of some of those who received botulism injections, were made to suffer frostbite or had their internal organs removed by Japanese military doctors. snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040602022_2.html

In the case of Unit 731, moreover, much of the picture was blurred until the 1980s and 1990s, when documents uncovered in Japan, China and the United States gave scholars a better idea of what went on. Some Chinese prisoners were dissected live and without anesthetic, for instance, while others were cremated before they were dead. The long secrecy about such atrocities further fueled resentment among Chinese who have taken an interest in Unit 731.

Most of the Japanese soldiers stationed here escaped as imperial Japan surrendered in 1945, although a dozen were captured and tried by Chinese authorities, and another dozen by Soviet authorities. The unit commander, Shiro Ishii, was protected by U.S. occupation forces in Japan and, Chinese historians said, occasionally lectured U.S. officers on his germ warfare findings. He died of cancer at home in Japan in 1959.

[sharp_stick]

1. It never ceases to amaze me

just how bloody awful we can be to each other. How exactly could someone rationalize allowing themselves to turn into such monsters?

[AlecBGreen]

2. Chinese people HATE the Japanese

I am here teaching English and I can tell you that everyone, EVERYONE here hates the Japanese. I taught a lesson with the phrase "If you could, would you..." I.e. If you could live in America, would you? If you could go back in time, would you? I asked the class "If you could kill every last Japanese person, would you?" Every last student said yes without missing a beat. I had asked it in jest but they were deadly serious. This is a long, slow-burning anger that wont go away and I can only imagine the future repercussions against the Japanese for their war crimes. Whatever happens, it aint gonna be pretty.

[bigscott]

3. the japanese

were as bad to the Chinese as the Nazi's were to the jews

[atreides1]

4. Very True

And the US granted asylum to the scientists, in exchange for their experimentation data.

Now why would the US want data on these experiments????

Vivisection

Vivisections were performed on prisoners infected with various diseases; scientists would remove organs to study the effects of the disease on the human body.

Prisoners were amputated limb by limb to study blood loss.

Arms were cut off and reattached to opposite sides.

Limbs were frozen and sawed off.

Stomachs were surgically removed and the esophagus was reattached to the intestines.
Parts of the brain, lungs, liver, et cetera were taken out.

Vivisection of a pregnant woman (impregnated by one of the doctors) and the fetus.


Weapons testing

Grenade tests used human targets at various distances and positions.

Flame throwers were tested on humans.

Bombs were tested on humans tied to stakes at various positions.


Other experiments

Human subjects were deprived of food and water to study the effects and duration before death.

Prisoners were placed into highly pressurized chambers until they died.

Frostbite experiments were conducted on prisoners to determine how long humans can survive when exposed to extreme temperatures.

Temperature experiments were performed to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and survival rate.

Prisoners were placed into centrifuges and spun until they died.

Animal blood was injected into humans.

Prisoners were bombarded with lethal doses of x-ray radiation.

Gas chambers tested chemical weapons on prisoners.

Air bubbles were injected into prisoners' bloodstreams to simulate a stroke.

Sea water was injected into prisoners to determine if it could be substituted for saline.

And where is this data now????

[acmejack]

5. Wow, I had never considered the implications.

That will eventually be trouble, the Japanese offend the Chinese further every year when their Emperor ritually honors their war dead.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Not just honors their war dead. He honors Class-A War Criminals n/t

[jmowreader]

7. The Japanese aren't real popular in Korea either

The two worst Korean obscenities imply that the recipient's mother was a "comfort lady" to Japanese troops.

When someone's army invades your country, cuts down all your trees except for one, outlaws your language, forces your women into prostitution, and (IIRC) destroys all the hot pepper farms in your country (without which kimchi, the national dish, cannot be made), it's understandable why the whole country has a permanent case of the ass against them.

[BrownOak]

8. Recommended Reading

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140277447/sr=8-1/qid=1145025900/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6790434-6944941?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" is a decent account of the Japanese actions toward China in WWII as well as the factors that allowed most of the Western world to overlook that behavior after the end of the war.

[newyawker99]

10. Hi BrownOak!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ThomCat]

9. Howard Zinn is right.

We need to start teaching peace. We need to teach that no war is ever rightous. No war is ever good against evil. The the very best it can only be evil against more evil.