Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up [Paperback]

During the time of the Great Depression in America, and up through the end of World War II, the Japanese medical corps, operating through the imperialist Kwantung Army, conducted thousands of biological warfare experiments on live human subjects. These subjects were primarily Chinese peasants convicted of petty crimes, but also included, as WW2 wore on, prisoners of war and non-criminal Chinese. For over forty years, these facts were kept an almost complete secret from the general public; glancing references would surface now and again, or a slick TV documentary would pop up for a British of Korean version of the TV magazines that are those countriesï¿ parallels to something like 20-20 in America. No one treated the subject in depth; no one knew how to get enough proof. Even the Chinese government, when it attempted a full-length film documentary, was unable to come up with enough information (their aborted attempt was made into a fictional film, the notorious Men Behind the Sun).

Then came Williams and Wallace and their book Unit 731. Seven years later, Sheldon Harris expanded greatly on Williams and Wallaceï¿s knowledge with the definitive text on Unit 731ï¿s war crimes, Factories of Death. Another seven years has gone by since, and Harris and Routledge have released a second edition of Factories of Death that contains the updated information from documents that have been declassified since. As time goes on, the book gets even more horrifying.

Unlike Williams and Wallace or Hal Gold (whose book Unit 731: Testimony is a brilliant, if anecdotal, complement to this work), Harris keeps his feet rooted firmly on the ground, keeping any conjecture to the most logical conclusions to be drawn from the facts at hand. Gold, for example, speculates in Unit 731: Testimony that both MacArthur and Truman were fully aware of the America cover-up of Unit 731ï¿s activities; Harris refrains from even hinting at such a thing until all the evidence is completely laid out, and even then, he only glancingly makes reference to then-President Truman at all. Because of this loathness to speculate, when Harris does let the cork out and start ranting (which happens only very briefly, at the end of the penultimate chapter), some of the teeth are taken out of his vituperation; heï¿s just not willing to go where he needs to go. One might cynically think that the stronger language that haunts the last third of the penultimate chapter is there simply because ranting sells and scholarship doesnï¿t. (That said, those reviewers who have noted the bookï¿s dryness are right, to an extent, but anyone who considers this painfully dry should try reading any other book Routledge has ever released. This is a John Grisham novel in comparison, going by readability. I was surprised, and pleased, at how quickly the book flew by, given its imprint.)

That same failing is Harrisï¿ greatest sin here; not one of commission, but of omission. Other books on Unit 731 have raised a number of questioning specters that Harris doesnï¿t touch on at all, including a few for which there is smoking-gun evidence (use of American biological warfare in North Korea in the 1950s that has Ishii Shiroï¿s stamp on it, the biological munitions plant at Hiroshima that led to Americaï¿s bombing of that city in 1945, etc.). It could reasonably be concluded that Harris didnï¿t think the evidence was sufficient to warrant mentioning them in the text, but even the casual Unit 731 scholar is sure to have heard the allegations; better, if youï¿re writing the definitive piece of scholarship, to address them rather than leave them
twisting in the wind.

Still, an excellent piece of work, one that history buffs are well advised to seek out. Schoolchildren (for this material is definitely in need of dissemination) could do with an abridged version; those who seek this out because they loved Men Behind the Sun should probably stick with the film unless theyï¿re used to reading nonfiction. (The notion of Ishii as a two-dimensional villain will be shattered within the first few pages. Prepare yourselves.) ****

ose Japanese, including
Emporior Hirohito, responsible to avoid[rpsecution as war criminals in exchange for information from the Japanese program.
However, why China, under Chiang Kai-Shek and Moa Zedong, both
hated the Japanese with a passion, acted similarly was not explain adequately. I hope more research will be done to clarify this dificiency.