August 1940, a year from the beginning of World War II and the date of which marks the beginning of Unit 731, a shorten name for Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung army. Unit 731 was part of a Japanese biological and chemical warfare research department with the goal of developing biological and chemical weapons for use by the Japanese Kwantung army. It was given the nickname Asian Auschwitz for its cruel human experimentations that they have conducted toward their prisoners. Unit 731 did not spare anyone from its experiments and had a wide range of subjects, including infants, elderly, pregnant women, and prisoners. Some of the experiments included amputating limbs, vivisection without anesthesia, and injecting diseases into the body. Unit 371 members did cruel experiments, but their actions can be explained through the views of Staub and Doris.
The situation and pressure of being in a war against more powerful countries, such as the United States and the Soviet Union, affected the mindset of the Japanese people. During the war, the Japan government, in Staub's words, was ruling with an "authoritarian" parenting style toward its citizens: an order given was to be enforced with violence and the citizens needed to obey the order even when it does not make sense or was against their beliefs. At the same time, Japanese nationalism was extremely high; to the Japanese citizens, loyally and patriotism to the country were more important than their own lives. Members assigned into Unit 371 were tasked with the goal of creating weapons that will increase the Japanese military power by any means possible even if it means that deadly experiments needed to be done on humans. They would have had the minds...
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... close and closer to invading Japan, Unit 731 has the pressure of not wanting to lose the war and having to develop a weapon that will match the superior destructive weapons of the Allies. The actions of the Unit 731 members during the human experiments can be justified differently by psychologists and philosophers with different ideals. Staub would claim that at first the Unit 731 members were conducting the human experiments because of their national pride and of their duty to the nation, but as time passed, the members developed cognitive dissonance and started to think of the subjects as more of an object than a human to the point of calling them "logs". Doris would state that the situational pressure of being at a disadvantage when fighting against other countries with superior arsenals and troops was the force which pushed Japan into establishing Unit 731.
Once significant recurring theme affecting Japanese planning for war was the psychology of arrogance ...
Thousands of individuals, including women and children, were murdered, stores and other properties were plundered and burned, and countless of women were raped . The Japanese government regarded sex as a way to keep the soldiers obedient and focused so rape was a device used to maintain good, Japanese warriors . Not only did human experimentation occur in German concentration camps, but also in Japanese prison camps. The 731 Unit conducted experiments dealing with plague, cholera, typhoid, frostbite, and gas gangrene . American prisoners of war were treated especially cruel during these human experiments. In one incident, an individual had his skull sliced open while Dr. Fukujiro placed a surgical knife inside of his skull cavity
In World War II, many new weapons were created to kill more people with more efficiency. The most notable of these was the atomic bomb. As American troops closed in on Japan at the end of the war, they realized that taking the small island nation would be nearly impossible. The Japanese soldiers had shown their willingness to die for their country when kamikaze pilots flew into American ships.... ...
Prior and during the war, the Japanese were known for their citizens’ extreme loyalty and commitment to their nation, but after the dropping of the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some of these feelings diminished within the Japanese nation. Prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb, over 70% of people in Japan believed that their nation could come out on top in the war even after more than a decade of constant fighting and the Japanese being on the defensive for over three years since the Battle of Midway. Directly after the use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the percentage of Japanese people that believed that defeat was inevitable rose to over 50%. Many people in the two cities that were bombed by the United States were affected more so than the rest of the Japanese population. For example, a 25% increase in suicidal thoughts was reported in the two cities struck by America’s new deadly weapon.
Japanese soldiers were trained in all types of conditions to prepare for war. People in Japan grew up with very nationalistic ideals. Many were passionate for their country and would sacrifice anything for their Emperor, even their own lives. This concept was reinforced during many Japanese soldier trainings. They were taught to never give up or surrender to the enemy. At this point, dropping the atomic bomb was needed to end the war in the Pacific, as it is the only way to defeat the Japanese. As the Japanese are very prideful in ethics, a war would occur on Japanese soil if it were not for the bomb. Japanese men would fight American troops, and ultimately, the Japanese would win the battle (The 1). The attacks on Pearl Harbor exemplify their dedication towards the war. Moreover, one can see the extent of nationalism through the negative effects of the Kamikaze pilots. They sacrificed their own lives for the better¬ o...
Between 1939 and 1945, more than seventy medical research projects and medical experiments were conducted at Auschwitz and Dachau. (Auschwitz Medical Experimentation). Over two hundred doctors participated in such research projects and experiments, sentencing between 70,000 and 100,000 people, held against their will, to death through experimentation. These were mostly Jews, but also gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities. They were thought to be inferior to the human race. Such practices became widely accepted and embraced by the Germans, due to the Nazis propaganda. The experiments conducted were diverse, but could be categorized in three classes.
An intense weapon was necessary to coerce a quick Japanese surrender. The Japanese showed no signs of forming any kind of peace agreement in the near future. On a random bomb raid in 1945, 100,000 people were killed in Tokyo in one night, and it appeared to have no impact on their will to fight. Japan would only engage in the vaguest of talks. They were scheduled to have a meeting with the Soviets (before the bombs were dropped) for a negotiated settlement, not the unconditional surrender that the United States and Britain wanted. Japan was unwilling to surrender and ready to wage a suicidal resistance if they could not get the terms they wanted. The Japanese cabinet was aware that if they were invaded, kamikaze pilots would dive bomb enemy ships, soldiers would fight by suicidal banzai charges, and civilians would strap on explosives and throw themselves under enemy tanks. The Japanese were ready to ?fight to the very end,? and only a devastating devic...
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.
In 1945, the United States was facing severe causalities in the war in the Pacific. Over 12,000 soldiers had already lost their lives, including 7,000 Army and Marine soldiers and 5,000 sailors (32). The United States was eager to end the war against Japan, and to prevent more American causalities (92). An invasion of Japan could result in hundreds of thousands killed, wounded and missing soldiers, and there was still no clear path to an unconditional surrender. President Truman sought advice from his cabinet members over how to approach the war in the Pacific. Although there were alternatives to the use of atomic weapons, the evidence, or lack thereof, shows that the bombs were created for the purpose of use in the war against Japan. Both the political members, such as Henry L. Stimson and James F. Byrnes, and military advisors George C. Marshall and George F. Kennan showed little objection to completely wiping out these Japanese cities with atomic weapons (92-97). The alternatives to this tactic included invading Japanese c...
The potential use of atomic weapons against the Japanese was appealing to the United States because it was seen as a dramatic and decisive way to end the war (Walker, ). Prior to the decision to use nuclear weapons, Japan and the United States were at odds over the terms by which the Japanese would surrender to the Americans, which did nothing but prolong the military conflict (Walker, ). Japanese leadership had expressed its desire to end the war to third parties, but could no...
Japan had face the both countries United States and Russia like Germany. United States had already spend so much time and money onto the fighting against Germany so they do not want to spend more on the Japanese. “Americans did hope to avoid Soviet involvement. The atom bomb seemed to be the way to square this circle, to force Japan to surrender quickly without weakening the American demands.” Americans do not want Russia to get involved, but they are attacking on the another battlefield. So in order to let to win the war against Japan before Russia comes in and the American already put a lot of effort to fight against Germany and Japan had attack Pearl Harbor and the suicide planes and ships had made the United States have a hard time. United States is still worried about Russia and they do not want to put everything in and then have nothing to go against Russia. So they had drop atomic bombs to make the Japan surrender before the Russian gets in. Germany had taken over a lot of area in Europe and Japan had taken over of places in Asia. In this map, it had shown that Japan took over a lot of places like China, Philippines, and lots of islands in the Pacific
In addition, the final decision was not informed or warned to Japanese authorities which, in that case, could have probably prevented the catastrophe, the dropping place of the devastating bombs were of limited military value and, finally, the decision was made partly thinking of the value of its development, the political intimidation that it would create in the Soviet Union and the rest of the world, and man’s natural but vicious need of power and leadership. The expensive nuclear attack was an unneeded method to win the war because, at the time, Japan was not strong enough to fight back the allies. More than sixty Japanese cities had been destroyed during the war by conventional bombing, the country lost potential help from Germany, the home islands were being blockaded by the American Navy, and the small islands in the Pacific Ocean once occupied by Japan were now under American control. In addition to its bad situation, the Soviet Union declared war against the troubled nation by attacking Japanese troops in Manchuria. The vast majority of the people around the globe knew that Japan had no possible way to win this war.
If the United States had invaded Japanese territory, the number of casualties would soar. Also, the Japanese said that they would fight to their death in this war, also making the United States more nervous. The Japanese thought that suicide or kamikaze was a very honorable deed in the military over surrendering. This was also one of the factors that agitated the United States even more.
One of, if not the most influential part, of allowing the bombs to drop is because of the mentality of the Japanese military and the pull they had in politics. As Maddox stated, “[t]he army, not the Foreign Office controlled the situation” (Maddox, pg. 286). Although Japan had an influential leader in regards to their emperor, the military wanted to and would have engag...
AV. Pathways to human experimentation, 1933-1945: Germany, Japan, and the United States. In: Sachse C, Walker M, eds. Osiris, 2nd Series, Volume 20, Politics and Science in Wartime: Comparative International Perspectives on the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2005:205-231.