the US struck a secret agreement with Ishii. In a memo to General Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964), commander of Allied forces in Japan, Washington recognized that although war crimes had been committed, the experiments led by Ishii and his colleagues were “almost incalculable and incredibly valuable to the United States.”
In exchange for the records of Unit 731’s experiments, the US granted Ishii and his assistants immunity. Ishii died, and his collaborators went on to have careers in prestigious universities and private laboratories.
The US government made several deals with some inhuman characters after the war. Yes, the science was (potentially) valuable, because there is no way that a moral human would perform the experiments, but granting immunity may have been too much. It’s past time that these people are recognized for what they are.
Ishii Shiro is a prime example.
He was the head of Unit 731 and did things like live and unanesthetized vivisections on people, bioloogical weapons testing on children, etc… Which is among the milder things. The US made a deal for all his data, and he lived his last years in peace and anonymity as a free man. He actually worked for free as a local doctor for a period.
If you look up information about him in Japanese sources, most of it is apparently all about how was such a nice man who helped people, and basically that he did a little oopsie in the 40s.
Yes, the science was valuable,
That’s one of the worse parts, they didn’t really gain any of the knowledge they hoped for:
However, the information obtained was not of significant value, as the U.S. biological warfare program had surpassed the capabilities of Unit 731 by 1943.
At least he repaid some of his debt to society.
I don’t see how grant immunity, sign documents, transfer them to US - take all documentation and knowledge, higher court later declares the immunity invalid, execute them for war crimes was off the table. It would likely be legal. It would surely be less immoral than letting them free.
What, did the US generals not want to have a bad rep with future war criminals??
‘Gosh no we can’t do that - we made a pinky swear to some of the worst people who ever lived’.
I mean, that would work once or twice, but after that I don’t think remaining war criminals would agree to the deal, knowing their predecessors were executed.
Right? They figured that out a decade or so later.
Heck Project Paperclip is why the USA fell, brought over all the nazi scientists and used Witness Protection to dissapear them into the populace, growing a bu ch of nazi families.
The USA fell? In WWII?
Given how many Nazis are kicking around these days, I’m starting to think that might have been the case. The 3rd reich just played the long game.
That article was appalling to read. But the history was pretty neat, im glad to see more japan ww2 stuff. Ive read alot about America making a deal with japan to take down germany. And i roughly kinda knew japan was doing there own Nuremberg esq warcrimes. But man, those poor people who were subjugated to that…
Honestly a pretty interesting and informative article. Thanks for sharing OP
They were doing that shit to Chinese and Koreans forever. If you like Japan don’t dig too much into why any particular shrine is any m in any particular place because chances are it’s built on some horrible shit. I know of several that were built on piles of random trophy body parts (noses tongues ears).
on second thought, let’s not go to Japan, tis a silly place
Ive read alot about America making a deal with japan to take down germany.
Must’ve been a real shit deal since it ended up getting hit with two nukes.
Not to mention, Japan surrendered 3-4 months after Germany did.
Weird way to end the article honestly
Deal with the devil…
The USA always rewarded & protected the worst of humanity.
New? I’ve heard all this on the Chilluminati podcast.
The records were released May 15th
