Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45, and the American Cover-up 1st Edition

Top notch book on world war 2 atrocities

When I read this book, I was struck by the difference in histories of the German death camps and the Japanese.What is striking is the apathy toward the Japanese biological and chemical warfare testing by the allies. Is it because the victims were Chinese? Or was it related to an occidental acceptance or oriental suffering? Or was it just money, exhaustion, and the interest by the allies in the field?In any event, the very dryness of this book makes it more compelling. And the cooperation after the war between the US government and the Japanese authorities is shattering.What is even more depressing is the see no evil attitude after the war by the Japanese. Almost no information made it to the Japanese people, and they appear to care less.At least they moved on to making transistors.

Although some readers might find this book boring and tedious due to too many facts, I believe the author wrote this book not for entertainment but for a more noble purpose. Since this isone of the very few books and articles on this grim subject, themore facts it contain the better it is to a serious researcher.The author covered sufficiently the unethical reasons of the USgovernment's cover-up and permitted those Japenese, includingEmporior Hirohito, responsible to avoid prosecution as warcriminals. However, why China, under Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong,both hated the Japanese with a passion, acted similarly was not explained adequately. I hope more research will be done to clarify this dificiency.I read somewhere that "Justice is not only a matter of punishment.Justice can also be served by having the moral courage to acceptresponsibility and make recompense when a great wrong has been done, however long ago and far away the event." I sincerelyhope this is so.ose Japanese, includingEmporior Hirohito, responsible to avoid[rpsecution as war criminals in exchange for information from the Japanese program.However, why China, under Chiang Kai-Shek and Moa Zedong, bothhated the Japanese with a passion, acted similarly was not explain adequately. I hope more research will be done to clarify this dificiency.

So many peoples were slaughtered in japanese laboratory.Japapanese were not human.But not only they were bad.American were also bad.After war,almost japanese bad doctors(slaughterer)were arrested.But american goverment was not punish them.They were shady transactions.japanese slaughters were supply their DATA(their cruel living-body test)to america and acquitted their crime.

Interesting book on U731 but is a difficult read. Contains a lot of information and dates, names and minutia butnot really much story line... it reads more like a text book rather than what I was expecting.

Sheldon Harris is considered the foremost authority on Japanese atrocities during WW2. Here he documents the atrocities carried out by Hirohito's scientists in Manchuria in the 1930s and early 1940s.He begins with a chapter or two on Japan's own Angel of Death - the architect of the infamous U731 experiment camp in NE China. It's not particularly engrossing, but I suppose a character profile is necessary.Then we get into the dirt - which is basically a highly detailed account of the depravity waged in Manchuria. Local Chinese communities and POWs were subjected to spine chillling experiments, no less depraved than the low points of Mengele and other Nazis. The most disturbing fact is that the army wasn't the main sponsor at the beginning. It was the Japanese academic community in Tokyo and Kyoto. It wasn't until the army discovered how effective the germs would be against the Allies that they became interested.Then comes the second half which details how US and Soviet forces gave quid pro quos to Japanese scientists for their 'information'. No one who has read anything about the end of WW2 in Europe should be surprised what Harris reveals in here.I found this book quite boring. I didn't manage to stay the course. It took a couple of sessions to near the end. I still haven't finished, some eighteen months after waging war on page one.

This book is a very well documented attempt to prove that the Japanese conducted biological and chemical testing on people - including American prisoners of war - before and during World War II. The book is sometimes engrossing but often tedious. This is because the author appears to believe in the premises that "no information is too trivial" and "more is better". The depth of the research is quite impressive. However, much of the information is redundant from chapter to chapter.The book is true to its title. It merely seeks to prove that the Japanese did human testing and that the U.S Government permitted those Japanese responsible to avoid prosecution as war criminals in exchange for information and results from the Japanese program. In this regard the book is very successful. Medical and other professionals in the area of biological weapons will be dissappointed in the book's lack of information on the results of the Japanese testing pertaining to the effects of these weapons on humans.