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The Man Behind the Sun
The dark legacy of Surgeon General Shirō Ishii
“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.” — Mark Twain
When people think about the crimes committed during World War II, they normally think of Hitler and his Nazi regime, or of Mengele and his scientists at the concentration camps. But it wasn’t just the Reich who performed atrocious experiments on those deemed unfavorable. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government created a division devoted to chemical and biological weapons that rose to an unfathomable level of cruelty, and commanded by a man named Shiro Ishii.
Biological warfare has been around for centuries. Mongols threw infected animals into towns under siege to cause outbreaks, Romans dumped carcasses into drinking wells to spread disease, and American settlers supplied the indigenous population with blankets infected with smallpox. There are countless examples of diseases being used in battle, and after learning harsh lessons during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan became interested in utilizing biological techniques to assure future victory.
As often seen with the road to hell, the first experiments were to prevent Japanese soldiers from contracting battlefield diseases. Through their tireless…
