Page 17 - Marutas of Unit 731

Army Medical School (IJA Medical School). Japan was a countr y which
lacked mineral resources, which made biological weapons a brilliant choice

since they were inexpensive and not ver y costly to produce or at least that

was his argument. Moreover, there were the factors of transmission and the

high lethality potential to consider. erefore, the ultra-nationalistic Ishii

Shiro decided to lobby the Army Central, proposing to establish a militar y

agency to develop biological weapons for Japan’s national interests. One of
his most compelling arguments to his super iors was, “that biological warfare

must possess distinct possibilities, other wise, it would not have been

outlawed by the League of Nations.”

As usual, Ishii was able to foster connections with others who could

advance his career and caught the attention of Koizumi Chikahiko, an
ultranationalist ser ving as Japan’s Minister of Health. With his support in

August of 1932, an Epidemic Prevention Laborator y headed by Ishii Shiro

was approved. However, at the time, the Imper ial Japanese Army Medical

School already had an Epidemic Prevention Laborator y.

In Tokyo, Ishii experienced tremendous success with Koizumi’s support.
He was able to secure a 1795 square meter complex at the Army Medical

College. Since many of his peers were antagonized by him, he was greatly

concerned about conducting research at Japan’s capital at the time. ere

was no way he could capture human exper imental subjects for vaccine and

defensive research work. e type of work which Ishii wanted to do needed
to be done outside of Japan proper and the ter ritor y of Manchuria looked

perfect. In the summer of 1932, aer Ishii and his childhood friend, Masuda

Tomosada, took a tour to Harbin, Ishii saw Manchuria as a per fect place for

[9]
his scienti c advancement.