Japan's infamous Unit 731 wasn’t just a research facility – it was a slaughterhouse where cruel human experiments blurred the line between science and sadism. And the cover-up almost worked...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What is the significance of Unit 731?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Late Nights with Nexpo early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. There's nothing wrong with the patient strapped to the operating table. He's terrified and fighting against the restraints. But otherwise, this man is in perfect health until your supervisor steps forward and shoots him in the leg.
Remove the bullet you're instructed, so you obey. You've performed this procedure many times in school, but never on a patient like this, who's been given no anesthesia or painkillers whatsoever. You work as carefully and compassionately as you can, but the patient screams and writhes the entire time. It's torture. Once the bullet's out, you receive your next task.
Remove a piece of the patient's intestine. After that, a piece of his arm. And after that, a chunk of his brain. You understand now. This patient is not meant to leave this operating table alive. He's one of the truly unfortunate ones. He'll be kept conscious the entire time until scientific experiments become too much for his body to handle.
And once his body is wheeled off to the crematorium, another patient, another victim, will be brought in at his place. Again, you take up your scalpel and make the first incision. You block out the patient's screams as well as your own conscience. This is no time to debate right from wrong. You've already seen what happened to the other doctors who questioned orders in Unit 731.
It's 1932, and deep in the heart of Japanese-occupied Manchuria, something monstrous is taking shape. Near the city of Harbin, Chinese prisoners are being forced to construct a mysterious compound. It seems to be part army base, part laboratory. But the prisoners don't know what they're building.
Their Japanese oppressors make them wear blinders as they work, like horses, to keep them from grasping the full picture. Because the horrifying truth is, many of these Chinese prisoners will never leave this place alive. They're erecting a concentration camp for their very own extermination. Overseeing the construction is an army medical officer named Shiro Ishii.
Shiro is a man of medicine, a man of ambition. This facility is the culmination of everything he's worked for. It'll be his personal playground, a place to perform unthinkable medical experiments on human beings with complete impunity. Only he knows the horrors that are to come. Shiro has always believed that people deserve the lives they're born into.
As a child, this meant that the peasants working his wealthy family's land deserved the brutal mistreatment they received from Shiro's father. Poverty and suffering were simply their lot in life. Shiro also believes he deserves the wealth and privilege he was raised in. The gods have smiled upon him. He's destined for greatness.
Shiro considers it his duty to socially climb, and if lesser people get crushed under him along the way, well, then so be it. This attitude has served Shiro well. By shrewdly placing himself near powerful people, he's received incredible medical research opportunities and has rapidly advanced up the ranks of the Japanese army.
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