port of San Diego.


The best defined plot, codenamed Cherry Blossoms at Night, aimed to infect the majority of California with the plague during one night in 1945. Another plot involved the use of 10,000 balloon bombs carrying incendiary devices to create forest fires as far inland as Michigan.

As Russian and American forces pressed on Japanese soil in 1945, Unit 731 head Ishii initiated a massive cover-up; destroying several buildings on the Unit 731 campus and killing 150 captive subjects. Ishii also took steps to place former researchers in government or academic positions to maintain a modicum of control over their actions and words.


United States General Douglas MacArthur gave vast the majority of scientists in Japan's Unit 731 immunity, but with a condition — MacArthur expected the scientists toshare their secrets with the United States and no other member country of the Allied powers. Only 30 soldiers connected to Unit 731 went on to be tried for war crimes, with five sentenced to death in 1948 and the rest paroled by 1958. Dr. Ishii avoided any prison time and went on to perform weapons research and advising in the United States.


With the passage of time, participants in Unit 731 are coming forward to tell their stories. Old men now speak of vivisecting young women in the Philippines in order to educate soldiers about female anatomy, as the Japanese military viewed the inhabitants as spies for the Allies. Toyo Ishii, a female nurse working for Unit 731, spoke of a watching human bone devoured by dogs before