Unit 731 - Laboratory of the Devil: Auschwitz of the East, Japanese Biological Warfare in China, 1933-45

Unit 731 stands as history’s largest bacterial warfare force, revealing brutal germ warfare and its enduring aftermath.

This book exposes Unit 731 as being the largest bacterial warfare force in the history of the Second World War. Manufacture and the use of biological weapons, the entire process of preparation and implementation of germ warfare, with the reflection on war and human nature, medical and ethical issues, is given by the testimony of the veterans of Unit 731. This evidence is provided by the surviving Chinese labourers and the families of the victims.

The book focuses on five aspects: first, the inhuman medical crimes of Unit 731 weapons, the biological combats, and human experiments; secondly, the war damage and the postwar effects of biological war by Unit 731 brought to China and other Asian countries; thirdly, the survey and cover-up at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials; fourthly the protection status of the site with development status of the exhibition and international exchanges of the Unit 731 Museum; fifthly and finally, there is a separate chapter discussing Japanese chemical warfare.

Yang Yan-jun, associate professor, is the director of International Center for Unit 731 Research, Harbin Academy of Social Sciences; and director assistant of the Unit 731 Museum, and has been engaged in Unit 731 research for 12 years. He has travelled to America, Japan, Germany, Poland and other countries for academic research and exchanges.