Unit 731 was a covert Japanese biological and chemical warfare research and development unit during World War II. Its goal was to study the effects of biological and chemical weapons through unethical human experimentation on prisoners. Experiments included vivisection, forced impregnation and infections with pathogens. The unit developed effective biological weapons and gained understanding of disease effects and limits of the human body. However, its methods violated basic human rights and ethics.

1. Unit 731
By: Tamarron Austin and Jasmyn Chase

2. The Core Motive
- Core Research Question: How does the human
body react to chemical/biological warfare?
- Research purposes for engineering biological
and chemical warfares
- Create biological weapons and record the
effects of those weapons out in field labs and
testing sites
- Obtain a better understanding of how the
human body’s limits and reaction to the
warfares developed in Unit 731

3. Hypothesis - Primary Objective: Conduct inhumane
experimentation and research in the area of
biological warfare.
- Focused on producing biological weapons
to be used against humans.
- Range of cruel and inhumane experiments
on prisoners.

4. General Methodology
- Went undercover as a water supply and
epidemic prevention for the Imperial
Japanese Army to hold tests
- Many experiments done to test the limits
on the human bodies of all genders and
ages
- Vivisections
- Inoculation of microorganisms
- Forced Impregnation
- Weapons Testings

5. Other Possible
Procedures
- Extremely unethical and inhumane.
- No other legitimate or ethical methods to obtain
similar results.
- Results derived from atrocious experiments that
violated human rights.
- These experiments should never be performed
again.
- Ethical research methods must always be
prioritized.

6. Conclusions of Unit
731
- Development of effective biological warfare
weapons
- Effects of diseases and chemicals on the
human body
- The tests ran also help the world treat frostbite
in an effective way
- Efficiency of weapons
- Lack of scientific methodology

7. Unit 731 (1935-1945) Present
- Inhuman procedures of human
experimentation
- Subjective
- WW II
- Violation of human rights
- No established ethical guidelines
- No consent
- Results are contentious
- Honesty
- Objectivity
- Integrity
- Carefulness
- Openness
- Transparity
- Accountability
- Intellectual Property
- Legality
- Post war
- Nuremberg Code and Helsinki Declaration
- Human Subjects Protection

8. Thank You
Any questions?

9. Works Cited
- Hammond, S. (2018, June 13). The Experiments of Unit 731: Torture in the Name of Warfare. Pacific Atrocities Education.
https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/the-experiments-of-unit-731-torture-in-the-name-of-warfare#:~:text=It
- Keiichi, T. (2005, November 24). Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army’s Biological Warfare Program. (John Junkerman
Trans.) Apjjf.org; The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. https://apjjf.org/-Tsuneishi-Keiichi/2194/article.html
- Resnik, D. B. (2020, December 23). What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It Important? National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis
- Sabbatani, S. (2014). [The experiments conducted by Japanese on human guinea pigs, and the use of biological weapons during the
Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945)]. Le Infezioni in Medicina, 22(3), 255–266. National Library of Medicine: National Center for
Biotechnology Information. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25269971/
- Cuerda-Galindo, E., Sierra-Valentí, X., González-López, E., & López-Muñoz, F. (2014). Syphilis and Human Experimentation From