5 ms·

"Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involved in Unit 731 were given immunity by the U.S. in exchange for their data on human experimentation

by Cieplak 11y ago

"Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involved in Unit 731 were given immunity by the U.S. in exchange for their data on human experimentation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 A bit off topic but perhaps interesting to some.

Cieplak 11y ago
"During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Biological_warfare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Biological_warfare
rangibaby 11y ago
Cf. Operation Paperclip, Klaus Barbie
merpnderp 11y ago
An absolute disgrace that so many monstrously evil war criminals were let off after the war. But the US is currently shipping weapons and money to brutal dictators in several countries in a horrible display of RealPolitik, so not much has changed.
- twoodfin 11y ago
  I'm genuinely curious: Which brutal dictators are currently receiving U.S. arms? With Mubarak gone I can't come up with any. The Saudis? Hard to describe what they're running (or at least barely managing) as a dictatorship.
  - arrayjumper 11y ago
    Pakistan? Their democracy is a joke. The military holds all the power as evidenced by the multiple military coups in their past
    - newjersey 11y ago
      Knowing nothing about Pakistan, don't the coups demonstrate the lack of power military holds? If I was a military chief, I'd rather prefer to steer policy from the background assuming I had any real influence. Not saying you're wrong. I'm trying to understand...
      - merpnderp 11y ago
        They depose a leader then to retain US support they allow elections then depose him when they no longer approve. Might as well be a Itanian style theocracy.
  - merpnderp 11y ago
    Army chief el-sisi, who deposed the last elected leader is now the new "elected" leader. When it comes to words like "iron fisted" "tyrannical" "repressive" el-Sisi makes Mubarak like your friendly mailman. But Obama supports him, so I guess that doesn't matter for most people (not speaking for you).
- prodmerc 11y ago
  Well, what's the alternative? "Yeah, these guys have some impressive technology and ideas that can revolutionize our world. But they killed a lot of people, so we're gonna just kill them" Very rarely those who take the absolute high road win...
  - scott_karana 11y ago
    "Kill them and take their lab-books" doesn't work?
_nedR 11y ago
Not just Unit 731, but a lot of America's rocketry experience was imported wholesale from Nazi Germany. We are talking 1500 scientists, technicians and engineers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip) including Wernher Von Braun, the designer of the V2. Indeed , Von Braun had been advocating space flight since the very beginning- all the evidence suggests that his tryst with the Nazi weapons program, was merely in order to further his ambitions for human space flight. Where would America be in the space race, had they not done this? I think in hindsight, it was a pretty clever decision - these people were probably the most valuable war bounty America got out of the whole deal.
- scott_karana 11y ago
  Unlike Unit 731, the scientists in Operation Paperclip were just that: scientists. Their complicitness in the war, while definitely non-zero, was markedly less.* Unit 731's doctors were more akin to Mengele: personally hacking off living humans' half-frozen arms to see how they reacted in the cold, experiments with gangrene, etc... Every single concentration camp "doctor" was deemed a war criminal. We didn't import them as a war bounty. Too bad we never did the same for Japan. ---- * The only two exceptions seem to be Kurt Blome and Hubertus Strughold, both brought over in Paperclip, who probably perpetrated some nasty shit but were "tried" and given a pass.
  - _nedR 11y ago
    Definitely they were not as culpable as the guys in unit 731 (Hell even Hitler was probably less sick than those guys). But their involvement (they used slave labour with people possibly tortured or worked to death) was strong enough for some of them (especially higher ups) to be put to trial.

by Cieplak 11y ago

Cieplak 11y ago

"During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Biological_warfare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Biological_warfare

rangibaby 11y ago

Cf. Operation Paperclip, Klaus Barbie

merpnderp 11y ago

An absolute disgrace that so many monstrously evil war criminals were let off after the war. But the US is currently shipping weapons and money to brutal dictators in several countries in a horrible display of RealPolitik, so not much has changed.

twoodfin 11y ago
I'm genuinely curious: Which brutal dictators are currently receiving U.S. arms? With Mubarak gone I can't come up with any. The Saudis? Hard to describe what they're running (or at least barely managing) as a dictatorship.
- arrayjumper 11y ago
  Pakistan? Their democracy is a joke. The military holds all the power as evidenced by the multiple military coups in their past
  - newjersey 11y ago
    Knowing nothing about Pakistan, don't the coups demonstrate the lack of power military holds? If I was a military chief, I'd rather prefer to steer policy from the background assuming I had any real influence. Not saying you're wrong. I'm trying to understand...
    - merpnderp 11y ago
      They depose a leader then to retain US support they allow elections then depose him when they no longer approve. Might as well be a Itanian style theocracy.
- merpnderp 11y ago
  Army chief el-sisi, who deposed the last elected leader is now the new "elected" leader. When it comes to words like "iron fisted" "tyrannical" "repressive" el-Sisi makes Mubarak like your friendly mailman. But Obama supports him, so I guess that doesn't matter for most people (not speaking for you).
prodmerc 11y ago
Well, what's the alternative? "Yeah, these guys have some impressive technology and ideas that can revolutionize our world. But they killed a lot of people, so we're gonna just kill them" Very rarely those who take the absolute high road win...
- scott_karana 11y ago
  "Kill them and take their lab-books" doesn't work?

_nedR 11y ago

Not just Unit 731, but a lot of America's rocketry experience was imported wholesale from Nazi Germany. We are talking 1500 scientists, technicians and engineers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip) including Wernher Von Braun, the designer of the V2. Indeed , Von Braun had been advocating space flight since the very beginning- all the evidence suggests that his tryst with the Nazi weapons program, was merely in order to further his ambitions for human space flight. Where would America be in the space race, had they not done this? I think in hindsight, it was a pretty clever decision - these people were probably the most valuable war bounty America got out of the whole deal.

scott_karana 11y ago
Unlike Unit 731, the scientists in Operation Paperclip were just that: scientists. Their complicitness in the war, while definitely non-zero, was markedly less.* Unit 731's doctors were more akin to Mengele: personally hacking off living humans' half-frozen arms to see how they reacted in the cold, experiments with gangrene, etc... Every single concentration camp "doctor" was deemed a war criminal. We didn't import them as a war bounty. Too bad we never did the same for Japan. ---- * The only two exceptions seem to be Kurt Blome and Hubertus Strughold, both brought over in Paperclip, who probably perpetrated some nasty shit but were "tried" and given a pass.
- _nedR 11y ago
  Definitely they were not as culpable as the guys in unit 731 (Hell even Hitler was probably less sick than those guys). But their involvement (they used slave labour with people possibly tortured or worked to death) was strong enough for some of them (especially higher ups) to be put to trial.