Page 21 - Unit 731 Testimony
P. 21

climber.  In  a  society  where  Confucian-rooted  respect  for  superiors  and  a
                strong  consciousness  of  hierarchy  dictates  boundaries  of  behavior,  Ishii's
                forward drive ran roughshod over protocol.

                      Ishii  felt  a  calling  to  the  military,  perhaps  to  serve  his  country,  but
                surely to advance his own goals of medical research. In 1920, he graduated
                university  and  enlisted  in  the  army.  Shortly  thereafter,  he  was
                commissioned a lieutenant, and by the summer of 1922, he had managed to
                gain a transfer to the First Army Hospital in Tokyo. His fever for research

                was appreciated by his superiors, and two years later he was assigned to
                return to his alma mater for postgraduate work in bacteriology, among other
                fields.

                      During these days, he was a frequent visitor to the home of the school
                president,  an  affront  to  Ishii's  university  instructors  in  that  he  was
                socializing not only out of his own league, but theirs, as well. He eventually
                grew close enough to the top man at Kyoto Imperial University to marry his
                daughter.  This  marital  link  cemented  his  position  with  the  university's
                medical  research  people  and  facilities;  in  a  sense,  thus,  it  also  laid  the
                beginnings of a foundation for his human experimentation in China.

                      Japan was a signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1925, which led to
                the  prohibition  of  biological  and  chemical  warfare.  As  a  specialist  in
                bacteria-related fields, Ishii actually found this development encouraging;
                he reasoned that if something were bad enough to be outlawed, then it must

                certainly be effective. In a way, Ishii's thoughts could be considered par for
                someone  in  a  bureaucratic  environment.  Anyone  familiar  with  life  in  a
                bureaucracy—especially a large and ponderous one—realizes that a large
                part  of  its  total  energy  is  expended  to  protect  and  enhance  individual
                members' own roles in the organizational machinery.

                      Inspired by these developments, Ishii pressed for the establishment of
                a military arm whose activities centered around weapons based on biology.
                This was his field; the more important it became to the military, the greater
                his own importance would grow within the system. Financial considerations
                provided logic to support his cause. Compared with the costs of building,

                manning, and maintaining huge conventional forces, for example, bacteria
                and gas were far less expensive. Other advantages were to appear later, but
                the cost factor was a major selling point for Ishii in his appeals to the top
                levels of the Imperial Japanese Army.
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