The Asian Auschwitz

1654 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Treatment in Japanese internment camps during World War 2

“’How many logs did you chop today?’ People would answer ‘Two logs were cut at my section’, or ‘No logs were cut at my section’” (Simkin). This conversation was not a discussion on the productivity of a day’s work of cutting wood, no this was far worse. The discussion between these men was about the vivisection of live human subjects. Here was a daily part of the lives of workers and researchers of the Japanese Covert Biological and Chemical Warfare Research Department Unit, or better known as Unit 731, and the atrocities committed by the “Asian Auschwitz”. So what happened to the leaders and men of Unit 731? If they surrendered to the Americans after World War II, then they were granted immunity and allowed to live their lives free without any worry of prosecution for their crimes on humanity. So the question is, was it correct of the United States to grant immunity to human experimenters of Unit 731 and cover-up all knowledge of Unit 731’s existence?

General Shiro Ishii formed Unit 731 in 1940 after Ishii received authorization by Emperor Showa, or better known as Emperor Hirohito, in 1936 to expand Unit Togo, a secret research unit led by Ishii. The location given to Ishii by Hirohito was Harbin, Manchukuo, which is now northeast China. This location was given to Ishii so that he could choose and receive as many test subjects, as he needed. These test subjects were to be taken from neighboring towns and villages, and if the subjects were not cooperative with the Kempeitai, military police, then the subject’s family would be murdered in front of them and then forcibly moved to the research facility. As quoted in the introduction by a former researcher named Yoshio Shinozuka, the test subjects were called logs to dehumanize th...

... middle of paper ...

...erimentation." reducetheburden.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. .

Simkin, Mark . "Foreign Correspondent - 22/04/2003: Japan - Unit 731 ." ABC.net.au. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. .

"The One Who Does Not...." Auschwitz and Birkenau Homesite. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. .

"Unit 731 ." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. .

White, David, and Daniel P. Murphy. "The Doctors' Trial - World War II." Netplaces. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

Working, Russell. "The Trial of Unit 731." The Japan Times Online. N.p., 1 June 2001. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. .

Show More
Related

  • Byron De La Beckwith Essay

    1871 Words  | 4 Pages

    Martin, Harold. “The Trial of ‘Delay’ Beckwith.” The Saturday Evening Post 237, no. 10, (March 14, 1964):77-81.

    Read More

  • The Rape of Nanking

    2406 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sheridan, Michael. “Black Museum of Japan’s war crimes.” The Sunday Times. The Sunday Times, 31 July 2005. Web. 31 July 2005.

    Read More

  • U.S. Provocations into the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and The Knowledgeable FDR Administration

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buchanan, P. J. (2001). Why Did Japan Attack Us? Retrieved from The American Cause: http://www.theamericancause.org/patwhydidjapan.htm

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment Camps And Holocaust Concentration Camps

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia Programs of Nazi Germany

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    On the first of September, 1939 World War II began. Hitler is in power of Nazi Germany and is wanting to cleanse the German people of racially unsound elements. He enacts a program that will aim to eliminate the so called “lives unworthy of life” called the T4 program (History Place). Over the next six years throughout Germany, many people are experimenting with and euthanized to help Nazi Germany reach a “pure” state. Was this program that was enacted ethical and what has happened since then to stop something like this from happening again? What kind of medical advances and data did we achieve from it and is it ethical today to use what they learned in today’s medical trials?

    Read More

  • The Jews in Auschwitz

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Epstein shows the process that the majority of Jews were being put through, such as the medical examinations, medical experimentations, gas chambers and crematoriums. Medical examinations were used to determine if the Jews were healthy enough to work. Dr. Mengele used the Jews as “lab rats” and performed many experiments such as a myriad of drug testing and different surgeries. The gas chamber was a room where Jews were poisoned to death with a preparation of prussic acid, called Cyclo...

    Read More

  • The Japanese Internment Camps

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1942 Roosevelt signed the Executive order 9066 which forced all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. They were forced out no matter their loyalty or their citizenship. These Japanese-Americans were sent to Internment camps which were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. There were ten camps all-together and 120,000 people filled them (2009). The immigrants were deprived of their traditional respect when their children who were American-born were indorsed authority positions within the camps. In 1945 Japanese-American citizens with undisrupted loyalty were allowed to return to the West Coast, but not until 1946 was the last camp closed.

    Read More

  • The Milgram Experiment of The 1960s

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Milgram experiment of the 1960s was designed to ascertain why so many Germans decided to support the Nazi cause. It sought to determine if people would be willing to contradict their conscience if they were commanded to do so by someone in authority. This was done with a psychologist commanding a teacher to administer an electric shock to a student each time a question was answered incorrectly. The results of the Milgram experiment help to explain why so many men in Nazi Germany were recruited to support the Nazi cause and serve as a warning against the use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the United States government.

    Read More

  • Inhumane Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most of the people involved in the horrible torture devices were killed because no human could stand these horrible tests (History.com).

    Read More

  • Process Essay: Effects Of The Nuremberg Trials On The Holocaust

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The four chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal (IMT)—Robert H. Jackson (United States), Francois de Menthon (France), Roman A. Rudenko (Soviet Union), and Sir Hartley Shawcross (Great Britain)—hand down indictments against 24 leading Nazi officials,” (“The Nuremberg Trials”). Alongside the judges stood A prosecutorial staff of over 600 Americans plus additional hundreds from the other three powers assembled and began interviewing potential witnesses and identifying documents from among the 100,000 captured for the prosecution case,” (Doug Linder). This was a time in history that really brought together the great nations and made them what they are

    Read More

  • The Holocaust: Exposing Humanities Darkest Sin

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    Müller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz: three years in the gas chambers. New York: Stein and Day, 1979. Print.

    Read More

  • The Angel Of Death: Joseph Mengele

    1790 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Corruption” Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. Community Television of Southern California (KCET). 2004-2005. Web. 24 March 2014

    Read More

  • The Holocaust: The Mass Extermination Of Jews At Auschwitz

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main focus of the post war testimony of Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess, Commandant at Auschwitz from May 1940 until December, 1943, is the mass extermination of Jews during World War II. His signed affidavit had a profound impact at the Post-War trials of Major War Criminals held at Nuremburg from November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946. His testimony is a primary source that details and describes his personal account of the timeline, who ordered Auschwitz to become a death camp, and the means used to execute and exterminate millions of Jews. Obtained while tortured nearly to death under British custody, the authenticity and reliability of this document is questioned due to arguable inconsistencies that exist. However, the events sworn to in his testimony have been recounted and corroborated by witnesses and thousands of survivors.

    Read More

  • Unethical Experiments

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mitscherlich, Meilk Doctor of infamy: the story of the nazi medical crimes. New York: Schuman, 1949; xxii-xxv

    Read More

  • Women In Japan Essay

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gamble, Adam, and Takesato Watanabe. A Public Betrayed: An inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., 2004. Print.

    Read More

More about The Asian Auschwitz

Open Document