Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up 2nd Edition

This is a great book covering this topic. It is not for the faint of heart, but it is worth the read. I quoted extensively from it in my upcoming book.

The book shop is wonderful, as well as the mail service. Shipped very fast and the book arrived in a good status, didn’t get any damage (shipped to China). It’s an excellent book - perfect content, beautiful printing. Everything is satisfying. Thank you very much for everything.

great book

This was something I did not know about. A lot in history about the Germans not so much about the Japanese. It is interesting in how much America posts about the Nazis and how little they talk about the Japanese

“Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American Cover-up” Revised Edition, Routledge Press, © 2002 385 pages, softcover.The author, Sheldon H. Harris (1928–2002) was Professor of History at California State University, Northridge and Professor Emeritus. He was a scholar educated at Brooklyn College, Harvard and Columbia Universities. From the time he learned of this wartime atrocity, Professor Harris dedicated his life to this most scholarly examination of the Japanese bacteriological warfare conducted in Manchuria, and the American cover-up that occurred thereafter. He presented papers at international conferences on science and ethics, and published many scholarly articles on his research before authoring the first edition of this book in 1994.All other accounts of Unit 731, prior and subsequent to this book, are partial when compared to this carefully research effort. There will be further information and perhaps refinements to this story if the U.S. declassifies further historical documents, but this text remains the standard for accuracy and depth of research on this topic.Part One covers “Japanese Factories of Death”Chapter 1: ManchuriaChapter 2: Ishii ShiroChapter 3: The Beiyinhe Bacteria FactoryChapter 4: Phase 1: Building Ping FnChapter 5: Phase 2: Hell in Ping FanChapter 6: The Secrets of Secrets: Human ExperimentsChapter 7: The Death Factory in ChangchunChapter 8: The Death Factory in NankingChapter 9: Experiments on Prisoners of WarChapter 10: Who Knew?Part Two covers “American Cover-ups”Chapter 11: The American Biological Warfare ProgramChapter 12: Discovery of the Secret of SecretsChapter 13: InvestigationsChapter 14: Scientists and the Cover-upChapter 15: The Military and the Cover-upChapter 16: ConclusionAmericans have a naive understanding of our participation in germ warfare research. We easily dismiss and forget such evidence, such as the case of the deadly anthrax letters sent to folks in Washington, DC at the same time as the unrelated 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York. Anthrax is normally an infection some farmers get, with cutaneous symptoms that are easily treated with common antibiotics. But the anthrax letters were a special strain of anthrax, engineered as a bioweapon by our Fort Detrick. We all heard about it and we all rapidly forgot about it. But our bioweapon program, second only to the Manhattan Project in warfare research, was a major U.S. effort in bioweapon development at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and figures heavily in the second part of this book.Further insight into our bioweapon programs is documented in the 58-minute television program aired in 2001 on PBS and produced by WGBH: “NOVA-Bioterror.” If a reader views this program first, it then sets the wartime atmosphere and mindset for the U.S. coverup described in Harris’s book and the top secret status of our research history maintained today. The book: "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War" by Judith Miller, William J. Broad and Stephen Engelberg released in 2002 also parallels the content of this video. Harris does not dismiss other Allied countries’ participation in bioweapon research either, noting that the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Holland all employed bioweapons researchers and had facilities conducting such research. The NOVA-Bioterror footage documents the unveiled bioweapon factories left deserted following the breakup of the Soviet Union, also confirming Harris’s perspective. Unfortunately, despite the superficial condemnation of such research, the need to develop vaccinations and other materials to counter biological warfare agents in itself essentially requires the production of the agent in order to develop the cure. And despite the 1969 germ warfare weapons ban signed under President Nixon, modern countries are continuing “defensive” research in Biosafety Level 4 lab facilities, and probably must do so. Indeed, one of the interests of Ft. Detrick scientists was the biosafety suits the Japanese had developed to keep Japanese researchers safe while working with animals and humans infected with insect-borne bubonic plague and typhus, and incorporating those insects into aerial “bombs” dropped over Chinese cities in order to allow the insects to spread these terrible diseases. Further details on this weaponized entomology is available in Jeffrey Lockwood’s “Six-Legged Soldiers” book that focuses on the use of insects in biological warfare, and likewise presents substantial evidence of U.S. military involvement. Four chapters of Lockwood’s book are devoted to the Unit 731 horrors. Is there an inborn sense of decency in humans that should repulse them from conducting germ warfare experiments on living victims, including vivisection without anesthetic? It seems that some of the younger Japanese medical workers were repulsed when they first came to perform such operations, but that most became hardened and able to dismiss their victims as less than human. Normally in a review, I summarize the points chapter-by-chapter and point out weaknesses, etc. But Harris has done a solid job of heavily documented research that leaves little in question. There are nearly a dozen other books that address Unit 731 and related Japanese biowarfare efforts and while telling partial stories, they lack the extensive references and documentation that Harris has provided. The remains of the Unit 731 camp, originally 40 miles outside of Harbin, have now been enclosed within the city limits of the ever-growing metropolis of Harbin. The Unit 731 Museum on that site was rebuilt and modernized in 2015, and I visited it for a day in 2016. The theme is not anti-Japanese marketing, but a sober reminder that under certain circumstances, any body of people could resort to such methods in a time of war where, as one Japanese officer stated, “you do what you must do to win.” That is the warning message of the museum, and in the final chapters of Harris’s book, he describes documents and statements attesting to our willingness to resort to biological warfare despite our proclamations otherwise. Once Harris learned of this terrible event, he dedicated the rest of his life to investigating and documenting it. This book is a testimony to his life well spent.

Professor Harris wrote this important book on the forgotten topic of Japanese germ/chemical warfare in WWII China. Unit 731 in Manchuria was the most important one in terms of research and human experiment. He elaborated a lot of details in different Units but did not quote Chinese statistics of germ/chemical warfare victims. A case in point was the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, whose team flew to the China coast where Chinese civilians risked their lives in protecting the US pilots back to Chungking. Mr Moon Chin of San Francisco (still living in 2013) piloted Doolittle to Kun Ming and back to US. The Japanese military angry on this protection killed a quarter million Chinese by germ/chemical warfare. The Chinese were invited and came to the Ohio Raiders Reunion in 2012.American POWs were subjected to Unit 731 medical experiment as documented in the book "Guests of the Emperor". However, at the Tokyo Trial, there were not much talk on this topic. It was conveniently lost in international politics. Worst of all, it was covered in secret deal in scientific research, moral and national dignity. Japan flew thousands of balloon bombs which landed in the west coasts in Canada and US. They are still lethal.The anthrax threat of 2001 reminded of the danger of germ warfare. Is the material from the Japanese stock?Reading this book help understand the horror of WW II Japanese research history at the expenses of human especially Allied POWs. This chapter is not closed as many Allied POWs and Chinese survivors still suffered physically and mentally since 1942. Their left over chemical weapons in Manchuria in hundreds and thousands are still lethal. Will Japan take the responsibility to clean up to prevent further pain and suffering? Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II Guests of the Emperor: The Secret History of Japan's Mukden POW Camp History -- Unit 731: Nightmare in Manchuria

this book proves without a shadow of a doubt the u.s. military could care less about u.s. soldiers and they care more about getting the results of experimentation done by the japanese on these poor souls, and it proves from the white house down they are al war criminals especially mac arthur.

I read this book because, frankly, my knowledge of this subject is weak. I know some about the Japanese Unit 731, but not much compared to the reading I have done on the Nazi's similar nefarious efforts.The book does impart a good amount of information, but is not that well-written. If it were not for some references to 1990's events, I would swear this was a book out of the 1950's. Not that folks did not write great stuff in the 1950's, but the book's organization and style are, well, old-fashioned (??). Its not a good enough book to be 5 stars, and the writing quality takes it down to 3 stars. That said, I would suggest it to readers who have a definite interest in the Japanese BW efforts, and the U.S. giving them a Cold War "pass".

Dit boek is een standaardwerk voor ieder die zich bezig houdt met Chinees Japans en Amerikaanse relaties tijdens WO2 , maar helaas ook in het heden. De wreedheid ten opzichte van China is stuitend, maar de Amerikaanse wetenschappers die Isshi, de ontwerper van medische experimenten, lieten gaan, omdat zij de data van de medische experimenten wilde gebruiken is nog veel erger. Bij de Tokyo trials is China volledig in de steek gelaten. Het onthult hoe de Amerikaanse rol bij de Tokyo trials een egoïstisch mensonterend motief betrof.

It's a really voluminous book.Delivery as planned

=o)