Unit 731
..also referred to as Detachment 731, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) of World War II.

1) Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China ), and had active branch offices throughout China and Southeast Asia...

2) Unit 731 and the other Units of the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department" were biological weapon production, testing, deployment and storage facilities. They routinely tested on human beings (who were referred to internally as "logs")...

3) Additionally, the biological weapons were tested in the field on cities and towns in China. Estimates of those killed by Unit 731 and its related programs range up to half a million people...

4) In 1936, Emperor Hirohito authorized by decree the expansion of this unit and its integration into the Kwantung Army as the Epidemic Prevention Department. From August 1940, known as the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army or "Unit 731"

5) The decree called for the establishment of an additional biological warfare development units called the "Manchuria Unit 100" and a chemical warfare development unit called the Kwantung Army Technical Testing Department (later referred to as Manchuria Unit 516).

6) The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, chem/bio units were founded in Chinese cities as "Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Units". Detachments included Unit 1855 in Beijing, Unit Ei 1644 in Nanjing, Unit 8604 in Guangzhou and later, Unit 9420 in Singapore...

7) Test subjects were gathered from the surrounding population and were sometimes referred to euphemistically as "logs", used in such contexts as "How many logs fell?". The official cover story for the facility given to the local authorities was that it was a lumber mill...

8) The test subjects were selected to give a wide cross-section of the population and included common criminals, captured bandits, anti-Japanese partisans, political prisoners, the homeless and mentally handicapped, people arrested for alleged "suspicious activities"...

9) Plague-infected fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, including coastal Ningbo and Changde, Hunan Province, in 1940 and 1941. This killed tens of thousands of people with bubonic-like symptoms...

10) In Nanking, the spreading typhoid & paratyphoid germs into the wells, marshes, and houses of the city, as well as infusing them into snacks to be distributed among the locals. Epidemics broke out shortly after, where it was concluded that paratyphoid was "the most effective"

11) Over 12 large-scale field trials of bioweapons were performed, and at least 11 Chinese cities were attacked. An attack on Changda in 1941led to approximately 10,000 biological casualties and 1700 deaths among ill-prepared Japanese troops, with most cases due to cholera..

12) During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague-bombs as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier....

13) After WWII, the Office of Special Investigations created a watchlist of suspected Axis collaborators and persecutors that are banned from entering the U.S. While they have added over 60,000 names to the watchlist, they have only been able to identify under 100 Japanese...

14) additionally after WWII, Soviet and Chinese "experiment labs" were created and reported as "operational"....