Camp Gagnon - The WWII Doctor Who Did Most Disturbing Human Experiment Ever | UNIT 731

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

🚨Remember To Rate Us  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Join us, as we set up in the tent to unravel the harrowing tale of Unit 731, diving deep into its gruesome experiments and dark legacy with gripping storytelling. WELCOME TO CAMP! 🏕️👕🧢 GET YOUR CAMP DRIP HERE: https://campgoods.co/🏕️ Get Today In History Email Here (Free): https://camp.beehiiv.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.comTIMESTAMP00:00 Intro1:32 What Is Unit 7314:13 The Early Life of Shirō Ishii8:30 Global Ban On Chemical & Biological Warfare10:28 Shirō Becomes Leader of Unit 731 + Operation Cherry Blossom at Night13:51 The Atrocities of Unit 73115:03 Dissecting Bodies + Reconstruction of Body Tissue While Conscious16:32 Cutting Off Limbs & Reattaching Them + Giving frostbite 17:15 Teenage Trainees Cutting People In Half17:52 Porcelain Bombs w/ Plague Infected Fleas + Flea Circus20:53 Typhoid & Cholera in Food Supplies 22:44 Prisoners Eating Lucite Solutions + Puffer Fish Venom + Ricin24:23 Aircraft Depressurization Experiments + Frostbite Studies 27:06 Fall of Unit 731 + Shirō Fakes His Death28:49 Shirō Ishii Makes Deal w/ United States33:12 Nakagawa Yoneso’s Personal Account of Unit 73135:22 Tinfoil Hat Mark38:59 Would You Rather?42:01 The Death of Shirō Ishii + The Power of Data

Doctors, they are some of the most respected and honorable professionals in our society today. Across every culture across all time, doctors were given special privilege, and most people like them. If you get sick, who do you go to? None other than a doctor. But what happens when they become evil? When they go rogue, when they pervert their duty to protect people with the goals of their country and their military. That's right. Biological weapons, warfare that is done with bacteria, that gets into people's food, and kills hundreds of thousands.

Well, today we're going to be discussing exactly that. Perhaps the most evil doctor to ever exist. He is a part of the Japanese Imperial Army. His name is Shiro Ishi. He was the director of Unit 731. This was perhaps the most morbid and dark moments of World War II. This was an experimental torture chamber where this guy, this doctor, would perform the most unthinkable experiments

on actual human beings. And today, we will be going through some of these atrocities, some of these war crimes, the actual experiments that were done, why they were done, and ultimately what happened to Shiro Ishii and his other colleagues at the end of World War II. Spoiler alert, nothing. So if you were interested in the dark facets of war and the atrocities that humankind can do unto herself, well, this is the episode for you. So, you know, sit back, relax, you know, maybe make yourself a martini. And welcome to camp.

What's up people and welcome back to camp. Today we're going to be taking a deep dive on one of the most evil doctors to ever walk the face of the earth. I mean, as you can imagine, you know, doctors, they're there, they're committed to your health. They're trying to help humanity take us, you know, into the future by giving us drugs, medicine, surgeries, whatever we need to preserve our health. But what happens when a doctor's incentives get perverted when they're now working with their own government and military to kill their adversaries, biochemical weapons, trying to infect their, you know, enemies with nerve gas and toxins to kill them in the hundreds of thousands. Well, that's what we're talking about today. And no, this is, you know, not going to be the World War II evil doctor that you thought.

You know, we're not talking about the Nazis necessarily. We're talking about the Japanese Imperial Army, specifically a guy named Shiro Ishi. You may not have heard of him. I didn't really know about him until recently. And this guy was maybe probably one of the most evil, evil humans to ever walk the face of the earth. He operated a thing called Unit 731, which was effectively, I don't know, you ever seen the movie Saw? It was basically that. It was a torture chamber, an experimental unit that was basically taking, you know, prisoners of war and performing the most evil atrocious acts and experiments that you could imagine on them to then test what happens when you, you know, do evil stuff.

stuff to people. And maybe there's some research that can be gleaned from what they had done. And that's what we'll find out at the end, that all the people involved with this program basically were given, you know, immunity. Nothing really happened to them. There was no criminal record. There was no sound, you know, no music they had to face. We're going to explore what they did, why they did it, and what happened to all the players as everything unfolded at the end of World War II. You're going to need a comedian on YouTube to discuss it in order to keep the world from, you know, falling into the hands of evil once again. Today I'm joined by my friend David and my friend Christos.

What's up, David? Hi. Is that a lighter? Yep. Nice. Okay. Not a weapon. I don't even know if we're allowed to show that on YouTube.

So let's start at the beginning. Unit 731 is a covert biological chemical warfare research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was headed up by a guy named Lieutenant General Shiro Ishi. and they basically conducted some of the most bizarre, brutal, and morbid experiments ever done on human beings ever. This guy's probably, I would say, up there with one of the most evil doctors to ever exist. So, let's dive in, shall we? Born in 18902 into a wealthy family in the Chiba Prefecture, Shiroishi studied medicine in Kyoto and graduated in 1920. This guy was kind of a beast, I'll be honest.

He was just a regular dude doing science stuff in Japan, all right? Typical. He was great with faculty. He was really high rank in his class. He was actually so well liked amongst the academia at Kyoto Imperial University. He ends up marrying the daughter of the university president in 1920. Kind of sick. Nice.

Dogging out the president's daughter. So far, the guys living a regular life doing his thing. 1921, he's committed. commissioned as the army surgeon, basically a lieutenant in Tokyo's first army hospital, and basically goes through this medical college. And the colleagues at the college note, he has a bit of an abrasive personality, a little bit grading. But his dedication to microbiology, specifically bacteriology, was amazing. And he was so focused on this one specific dedicated science. And he was staying up late night in the labs just cooking up.

You know what I mean? In 1924, Ishi goes back to Kyoto Imperial University for post grad, and specializes in epidemiology, pathology, and preventative medicine. His research included developing a portable water

filtration system, which later became a key tool for the Japanese army. So far, the guy is just a regular doctor, citizen, academic. That's working to help his people. During this period, he became fascinated by biological.

Oops. It happens to the best of us, right? We all go to college. We get like a little thing that we get into. What was yours? Mine, I would say, was probably stand-up comedy, which you could argue is maybe worse than back to biological warfare. I don't know.

I would rather, I'd rather go see a comedy show than mustard gas, but... All righty, don't skip forward, guys, because I am on the road. World's Fastest Ad Read coming at you. I'm going to be in Charleston, South Carolina, Strasbourg, Hoboken, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Raleigh, Poughkeepsie, Portland, Oregon, Fort Worth, Texas, Austin, Texas, Stanford, Philly, Levittown, Chandler, Arizona, San Diego. I'm also going to be adding Toronto, Montreal, as well as Washington, D.C., and a bunch of other dates. You can get all that at the mark agnon.com. Dates are in the description, also in probably the comments of this episode. Go see me on the road. Come hang out. I'll be hanging out with everyone after the show.

Come shake my hand. Call me an idiot. Whatever you want to do, I will be there. Additionally, I will be doing my one hour of stand-up comedy. I'm very proud of this hour. I'm really excited to share it with you guys, and it would mean the world if everyone could come on out. And what do you wear to a show on the road? That's a great question. You can go to campgo.

That's right. We got merch. We got camp merch. We got hats, hoodies, t-shirts. A lot of stuff is out of stock. Things have been selling like hot cakes, but we're going to be restocking everything and all the sizes. So you can go there right now.

Get all the merch, get all the coolest clothing in the podcast game. We're going to be updating that site regularly. And if you come out to a show, I'd love to see you, some of the threads that we got up online. I'll see you guys there. Here is a bullet- Imagine this, you're 30 feet underground, digging through frozen earth with spoons and mess hall plates.

Nazi guards patrol overhead, one wrong move, one loose pebble, and it's over. But on this night in 1944, 76 Allied prisoners would attempt the impossible, tunneling their way to freedom in the largest prisoner of war escape of World War II. And centuries earlier, In a cold stone chamber, a teenage girl in armor stood before her accusers.

Her crime? Leading armies speaking to angels and daring to challenge the most powerful men in Europe. Joan of Arc's trial would become one of history's most infamous moments. These are just two stories from today in history. The newsletter that brings you the most fascinating events from the past delivered fresh to your inbox. From epic wars to religious rebellions, ancient mysteries to modern marvels, don't miss a another piece of history. Scan the QR code now or click the link in the description to sign up for today in history. I don't know. People go to college, they get into all sorts of weird things,

right? Badminton, bowling, bisexuality. What did you get into in college at the University of Tampa? Don't docks me. I got into women. Okay. See? No. That's biological warfare. So in 1925, the Geneva Protocol banned chemical and biological weapons. Right? It comes. Coming off the heels of World War I, mustard gas had been used in the trenches. People are going home with nerve diseases and all sorts of terrible ailments. And so Geneva comes together, which I don't even know why we trust the Swiss with this shit. But Geneva comes together and they say, hey, no more biological weapons. And this peaks Shiro's interest.

He goes, wait, what are these weapons? He argued that such bands indicated their strategic potential and lobbied military leaders to invest in their development. That's kind of a backfire, if you ask me. right like the the the the good guys are like hey don't use this and this guy's like wait if they're saying not to use it we should obviously use it right like that's kind of like a stric sand effect you try to like stop this thing on the internet and all of a sudden it goes everywhere so ishi is promoted the surgeon captain in 2025 and he starts conducting field research on epidemics in shikoku and taiwan his work on dysentarian typhus solidified his reputation as an expert

and disease control. In 1928, Ishi went on what you could call like a tour, you know, maybe like an internship, perhaps, of Western institutions

to gather more knowledge in the U.S. This includes the Rockefeller Institute in the United States. Uh-oh, I smell a conspiracy. Right? He goes to the Rockefeller Institute and all of a sudden

learns everything about, I don't know, chemical warfare. During this tour, Ishi was exposed to advanced bacteriology and their technology. Eishi later claimed the trip inspired his vision for large-scale biological weapons research. So by 1930, he becomes a professor at the Army Medical College in Tokyo, where he established

the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory. By 1936, Ishi is a very savvy political navigator and also a very bright doctor. So with this efficiency plus political connections, he propels himself to be the leader of this thing called Unit 731. This is a facility that's dedicated for water purification for troops, but also because of Ishi's interest in biological weapons, basically doing chemical warfare development, right? So it's a twofold. It's a wide spectrum. Yeah, we do a little water over here, a little, you know, giving people diseases over here. Maybe it's one in the same. Maybe that's why they put Florida in our water to keep you guys stupid. Anyway, that's a theory. I don't believe that. Basically, they're trying to mask the atrocities that are going to happen at this unit 731. And again, this is 1936. This is prior to Japan allying with the Germans in World War II. That happens in the 40s. But at this point, World War II is already basically kicking off in Europe and they can see what's going on. So by 1941, he's promoted to Surgeon Major General. This is overseeing a network of 10,000 personnel across Asia. These operations, the

You know, testing pathogens on prisoners, planned attacks like the abandoned 1945 U.S. bioweapons strike, Operation Cherry Blossoms at night, which is a very cute name. Operations Cherry Blossoms. Can you Google that? What is Operation Cherry Blossoms at night? Oh, at night's part of it? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, you thought that was just... They would do Cherry Blossoms at night. Is this a SpongeBob episode? Maybe. We're doing cherry blossoms? So Operation Cherry Blossoms at night, as it has come to my attention, was a planned Japanese military attack on civilians in the United States using biological weapons during World War II. The proposal was basically for the Japanese Navy submarines to launch sea planes that would deliver weaponized bubonic plague into the United States developed at Unit 731.

I mean, that's way worse than Pearl Harbor. like Pearl Harbor I mean Yeah I mean that's crazy Like loki if this had happened All the rest of World War II You know like the big You know the two strike solution we hit You know the socket bomb

That would have been more justified Again I'm not saying it's justified But once you see it like Yo they were planning on launching bubonic plague In America in the 40s I mean that's insane But this operation was abandoned shortly Afterwards because the planning

You know was was faulty and there was strong opposition from the general of the Japanese army, which is good. I guess, you know, cooler has prevailed. But this guy still is cooking at unit 731. And yeah, as you had mentioned before, David, the R word of Nanjing, Nan King. I don't know how to pronounce that. I always heard it as king. That's what I always thought, but apparently Nanjing. and basically this was a massacre that the Japanese did in China. And it's worth noting most of the people that were tortured and experimented on in Unit 731, I believe we're Chinese. So they kind of used it as justification to basically just go wild.

So what happened there? Let's go through some of the dirty details. The prisoners were intentionally infected with diseases like anthrax or bubonic plague and then dissected alive to observe internal organ damage. It's anthrax. Just a white powder, I guess. That's all I've ever heard of me. But I think it's like a nerve toxin, my understanding. Like it basically causes, like nerve damage, is my understanding.

Anthrax is a disease caused by the bacteria bacillus, which typically affects animals like cattle, sheep, and goats. Chattel. While rare in humans, anthrax can be transmitted through contact with infected animals, wool, meat, or hides. What does it do to them? That's what it doesn't fucking say. Transmission, types of humans.

Symptoms. Symptoms vary depending on the types of anthrax and include skin lesions, fever, chills, chest pain, difficulty breathing, gastrointestinal distressed, and more. It doesn't seem terrible. I feel like I've had all that. Is this like the medical term for like leprosy? Oh. No, I feel leprosy.

No, leprosy is a medical term, never mind. What does he even have to do with leopards? That's what I never understand. I never got that. But yeah, they were infecting prisoners with diseases like anthrax. And this was done under the belief that live tissue yielded more accurate results than post-mortem studies. So they were literally cutting people open alive. So you get infected with a disease and then you get cut open alive.

Victims had organs removed while conscious, including the lungs and the livers to study how long they could survive. I don't know how you get someone to a point where they're just like, yeah, who cares? Like we can just do this on. This guy was also going home to his family, I said. He was like doing these experiments He has a family? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I mean, let's find out if he had kids.

I'm assuming he did, you know what I mean? I mean, they were doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Lims were amputated and sometimes reattached to different parts of the body, which could be cool. I bet you his family never got out of line. Oh, yeah. They knew what he was doing. Like, I wonder if he was just doing all this and, you know, they just were like, all right, whatever.

That was work, babe. Yeah. It was good. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, just, you know. Cut open 10 million. Chinese people root to stem Yeah, yeah

Yeah, he had a daughter And his daughter Harumi felt that Shiro had been unjustly condemned Quote, my father was a very warm-hearted person He was so bright That people sometimes could not catch up With the speed of his thinking

And that made him irritated And he would shout at them And sometimes cut them open alive He was ahead of his time Yeah, he's just too smart You just thinking like 10 steps ahead All the time, you know what I mean? So he's,

cutting off people's bodies, limbs, their appendages, and then reattaching them at random places. They studied gangrene and frostbite effects by exposing prisoners to extreme cold before amputating their limbs.

I mean, like, what are you even learning from this? What's the point of it? To literally study, like, all right, what happens if we give people these things? But is this beneficial for war? I mean, if you're going to do biological weapons,

you're like, oh, what weapons should we do to subdue this population in this way? Yeah, but don't you know, like, hey, anthrax isn't going to treat them well? already? But what if they are able to

get lemon juice and then you're good? You know what I mean? It's like you launch this whole attack and then they can just get an antidote easily. I mean, I'm assuming, I don't know, I'm not a chemical weapons expert.

Youth Corps members, this included teenage trainees, assisted the surgeons in vivisections, literally cutting people in half, often treating the axe as training exercises. Prisoners were assigned three digit numbers upon arrival

and cremated after death to destroy the evidence. evidence. Those who resisted the infection were executed by gunshot or lethal injection or decapitation for brain studies. To preserve data, infected prisoners were executed via lethal injection or gunshot. Organs were then preserved in formaldehyde and shipped to Tokyo for analysis. I mean, that's insane. So this is where the biological warfare testing thing comes in. The fleas bred at Unit 731 labs. The fleas were infected with bubonic plague and dropped over Chinese cities via porcelain bombs, which is a very, I feel like...

How do the fleas survive the bomb? I mean, fleas are just insane. Interesting. Also, they're porcelain bombs. I'm assuming they're just dropping a vase out of a plane. And it is a very Asian bomb, like a beautiful piece of... A beautiful piece of china. A beautiful piece of porcelain?

Like, you've got to wonder if they were like, oh yeah, just drop the porcelain. And they'll be so fixated by our amazing calligraphy that they won't even... notice that there's fleas with plagues in them. If you gave me the rest of my life to figure out how to mate fleas, wouldn't even get a place. Well, you ever see the flea circus? Do you remember that? No.

Look up flea circus if you don't mind. A flea circus was literally like a sideshow thing that they would do like carnivals and stuff, and they would have these fleas. They would, yeah, the fleas were, they would put them on harnesses, and they were trained to perform miniature circus acts, such as pulling chariots and balancing a tightrope. Can we search one of the- That's the dumbest thing in the world? Apparently this was a very popular thing.

You could get fleas to like, look at this. That's like us walking on a sidewalk. I mean, yeah, sure. They're pretty small. Yeah. But still, I mean, they're pulling chariots. There must be a, look up a video of this, please. This would actually be really helpful.

This is clearly in like pre-20th century. There's no way there's a video of the flea circus. But you don't think they still have fleas today? They could train up and make them into athletes. I would buy tickets tomorrow. To see a flea pull a chariot. They're very expensive. They're very small arenas.

But let's. Let's get a video of the real-life fleecergs. Hold on, yeah, run this real quick. Come on, play that. Look at this. Oh! You're telling me you wouldn't spend 10 francs to see this? This is how boring the world was before Instagram.

Isn't that crazy? I mean, that is pretty sick. There must be a way to harness this energy. Right? Like, if you just put all these guys into like a hamster wheel. This is the most bullshit thing in the world. They're putting these little... these little designs, these little statues, these little, what's the word I'm looking for?

Trinkets? Trinkets on fleas. And it's not like it's coordinated. They're just struggling to move. Look, what do you think a circus is? Hey, let's put a guy in a can and see what happens. You know what I mean? Like, a circus is just doing the same thing to humans.

All I'm saying is, there might be a better use for fleas, such as bubonic plague bombs. Exactly. So they would literally put these fleas, thousands of them, into porcelain bombs and then they would drop them over places in China. Typhoid and cholera

were introduced into wells, marshes, and food supplies in cities such as Nan King. Epidemics broke out shortly after these deliberate contaminations. Prisoners were exposed to anthrax, dysentery,

and glanders. I don't even know what glanders is in controlled environments. And then the survivors were killed. I mean, it's just crazy. Like, I don't understand how Japan went from like so brutal to just being like

you know what I mean I was trying to think about this because I was doing some research and like the way Japanese people are now has to just be they're like they don't want to get out of line

they realize all the atrocities they did so their cultures like respect hard work like they're not stepping out of line I wonder if they feel bad about it I wonder if they like look at this and they're like yeah whoops

you know what I mean yeah yeah yeah like it's just insane like America we did a lot of bad stuff and I feel like we carry a guilt around but you never do we? Yeah. I don't think so. I feel a little guilty. What did you do?

I don't know. I didn't do anything. I wasn't even part of this. I've moved here. Okay, I'm an immigrant. I came from France. I don't know anything about what's going on. But I don't know. You've got to wonder if you're the Japanese, if you feel like, oh shit. I don't think guilt is built into like the American culture. Maybe it should be. I'm an ally. 1944 unit 731 shifted to infecting crops with fungal pathogens aimed at you know inducing famine rice blasts and wheat rust were tested on Chinese farms oh I mean this one's wild some of the other stuff they were doing victims wore military uniforms or gas masks and then compared them to naked

subjects to assess the protective gear efficacy of the uniforms that makes sense yeah I mean it's just like wild like I guess you would hope to be on the uniform side If you're a prisoner, they're like, hey, put this on. You'd be like, all right, it's better than the alternative. Prisoners are then forced to consume leucite solutions to study internal damage. Unit 731 tested non-military toxins to expand Japan's chemical repertoire. Pufferfish venom was used. You ever heard of this?

Pufferfish venom? No. This is like a type of venom that, like, apparently pufferfish are, like, super toxic. If you, like, people eat them, but if it's not prepared by, like, a hyper, hyper expert chef, then they can die. Apparently, like, they're insanely venomous. Are pufferfish venomous? Or is it like a certain thing?

I guess poisonous would be a better term. Oh, no, I think technically they are venomous because I think you can get stung by them. Like, if they inflate, like, yeah, search this. Like, look up pufferfish venom. Apparently it's like super bad for you. They would be injected to study nerve paralysis. And then they would also use ricin

derived from castor beans that would induce organ failure. Puffer fish contain a neurotoxin called tetrodoxin. tetrodotoxin. And it's lethal to humans and other animals causing paralysis and potentially death. It's made from the liver, ovaries, and skin, and yeah, you have to prepare them super, super, super well. It's not destroyed by cooking.

I mean, that's crazy. Like, why would you even risk it? Like, why do people still eat puffer fish? I get it. There's no way it can be that good that you would risk. Oh, yeah, if it's not done exactly right, it's just death. That's the ultimate delicacy. I guess.

I don't just eat a dolphin. right like there's no venom and dolphins right victims were then force fed or injected with these pathogens and yeah it was anyone that survived then would just be killed to then have an autopsy done oof this one is tough hypobaric pressure experiments prisoners were placed in chambers that simulated extreme pressure changes victims then experienced ruptured eardrums organ failure in death as their bodies collapsed under the pressure they were sealed inside these steel decompression chambers

exposed to altitudes of 20 to 30,000 feet, pressure was rapidly reduced to mimic sudden aircraft cabin depressurization or high altitude bombings. So that's how they're, that's why they're doing this testing, I guess. They're just thinking like, okay, what are things that we don't know?

Yeah. What is the amount of pressure human being can endure? Yeah. So literally like any type of like more, just ask chat chabot. Before chat chbt, they would just have to do it. They would just go out there. Before AI, they'd be like, all right.

And the only time to do this, is during time of war. Because then you can experiment on adversaries. Because adversaries aren't human. You know, I mean, you just dehumanize the whole population, kidnap them, and then you're like, yeah, we can just do stuff on them. Because it is crazy. Like, we do these types of experiments, or at least we did on, like, mice and stuff.

And that's... And we still do that? Yeah. Yeah. They're doing stuff to mice. Inject them with something. Give them a plague. Give them a line of Coke.

Yeah, exactly. See what cocaine does to them? Yeah. I don't know. Oh, fun time. Yeah. Researchers sought to determine. the maximum survivable altitude and time-to-death thresholds.

So 30,000 feet death occurred within 8 to 12 minutes. Survivors of initial exposure were euthanized for autopsy to assess internal damage. At a certain point, you've got to be like, M.K. Ultra is not that bad compared to this. What is M.K. Ultra? It's like, oh, we're going to take you and give you drugs. Like, sure, that's not great to be given drugs against your will. I don't know. I think they were giving like people thousand hits of acid. Yeah, better than Hyperberg chamber. at 30,000 things.

I've taken one tab of acid and had a horrible time. Now imagine a thousand X that's miserable. I guess, yeah, maybe acid plus a hyperbaric chamber is probably the way to go. Limbs were frozen solid.

That's another thing that did. Frostbite studies. And yeah, they would just put people into, you know, like freezing temperatures, negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit,

submerged in ice water are left uncovered in open air freezing conditions. And then victims dip their water beforehand and they wanted to see what would freeze faster. At a certain point, they got to be looking at each other like, yo, are we just doing jackass?

It's like almost jackass level like, let's just see what happens. I don't know, try it up. It's farted in a tube in a confined room for... Yeah, how many far does it take to kill someone, you know? Like, I feel like they were not far off from doing that. So here's how it all ends. Basically, they're just doing the most brutal experiments you could ever imagine on actual human beings.

And in 1945, Japan surrenders. Unit 731's leadership and members systematically evaded accountability through a combination of evidence destruction, U.S. complicity, and strategic silence. I mean, this is the part that I find so morbid about history is that all the worst people in history don't ever take accountability.

Like, all of them. Like, none of them ever have to, like, face the music of their own crimes. It's insane. So like Soviet forces advanced through Manchuria, which is where they did a lot of these experiments. And Ishi is ordered, he orders the destruction of Unit 731's facilities and the remaining prisoners are all killed, poisoned, or shot. All the documents and equipment are then incinerated. One of the technicians there later testified to burning victims and then scattering the bones in a river. Ishi fakes his own death in 1945 and then goes into hiding.

Hell yeah. crazy now the fun begins when american occupation forces learned that is she is still alive they order the japanese to hand him over and investigators from camp detrick began interrogations first ishi denied any human testing had taken place

bold bold what yeah i mean of course you're gonna deny yeah i guess but like i wonder if he's trying to do like a lawyer thing like no we didn't do any human testing they were subhuman yeah they were chinese like that's like the like i'm sure or they were trying to take like some legalese approach. And he says, no, no testing. I'd take place what you're talking about.

And he was aware that the Soviets also wanted to talk to him and that it's possible that their methods might not be so diplomatic, right? Yeah. So what does he do? He later offers to reveal all the details of his program in exchange for immunity from war crimes. Like, he's basically like, look, I'll strike a deal with you. I'll give you everything we know.

he's terrified of learning, you know, what's going to happen to him. He's thinking like, okay, I'm going to get killed either way. Might as well try to broker a deal with someone. So the Americans, you know, are anxious to learn the results of some of the experiments that they themselves have been unable to perform because, you know, human rights. The American military accepts Ishi's offer and the approval was given by the highest levels of government. The arrangement brokered by Douglas MacArthur justified as protecting the Cold War era national security interest. basically gives Ishi immunity.

From 1946 to 1948, Ishi and senior officials from the Unit 731 provided detailed reports of human experimentation, including the plague weaponization and the frostbite studies. These were classified and later used by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. Ishi lectured at the U.S. Biological Warfare Center in Maryland in 1948, sharing insights on aerosolized pathogens and live subject testing. So he literally gets a flight to Maryland

and then starts, he's like an adjunct. He's just like coming in and like teaching class. I'll be your substitute teacher this week. Yeah, he rolls in a video. Rolls in a TV and everyone's like, oh, awesome, we're going to watch a movie. Nope. It's just fucking saw.

In a secret CIA facility, doctors administered mysterious substances to unwitting Americans. Their goal, mind control. The year was 1973 and as agents frantically burned thousands of documents, Project M.K. Ultra's darkest secrets nearly vanished into smoke. Now, step back to Friday the 13th, 1314. The Grandmaster of History's most powerful military order kneels before the flames. As the fire rises, Jacques de Molet, last leader of the Knights Templar, utters a curse so chilling that when both the French king and Pope die within the year,

whispers of dark prophecy spread across Europe. Now, these aren't crazy conspiracy theories or something you read and, you know, some fan fiction. These are real historical events you'll discover in Today and History, the newsletter that uncoveres the strange, shocking, and sublime moments that shape our world. Get your daily dose of mind-bending history, scan the QR code or click the link below to join Today's history. He avoids persecution. He lives under U.S. protection until his death in 1959. He continued unpublicized medical research and maintained his ties to Japan's post-war scientific communities. One of the co-founders of Unit 731, this guy, Ryoshi Nyato.

He established the Green Cross Company, a pharmaceutical firm later implicated in HIV-tainted blood scandals during post-World War II trials. He died in 1982 without legal consequences. But the director of 731's vaccine experiments, he probably, for sure got persecuted. This guy Masaji Kitano. Yeah, he'd probably, yeah, I think he gets killed. He gets executed. But what actually happened?

Oh, no, he doesn't get executed. He becomes a president of Japan's National Institute of Health and then published papers on infectious diseases without ever disclosing his wartime crimes. Oh, God. Yeah, I mean... Are we allowed to show that on YouTube? Oh, we're not allowed to show any of this. This is

insane. Yeah, it's like... So, yeah, they have these frostbitten hands of Chinese people. They're taken out in the winter. How to best treat frostbite? It's interesting that America, I guess if you're going to war with the Soviets, you're like, all right, let's get some, let's figure out how bad frostbite is. You know, let's figure out if there's a way to fix frostbite.

Hey, great, the results, they're pretty bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, not great. I mean, it's insane that they have pictures of this. Like, you would think that they'd be like, hey, let's not do. Is that even a human being? That's what they were asking. See? This is how easy it is, dude. I'm telling you, the dehumanization of human beings is not that far off. But yeah, no one was really persecuted, it seems like, for their crimes. All right, here's another morbid detail for you. This guy, Nakagawa Yonezo. He's a professor at Osaka University, studied at Kyoto University during the war. And while he was there, he watched footage of some of the human experiments and executions from Unit 730. 31. He testified

about the playfulness of the experimenters, which adds to how morbid and detached these people are. Like them having fun? Literally. His quote, some of the experiments had nothing to do with advancing the capability of germ warfare or medicine. There's such a thing as

professional curiosity. What would happen if we did such and such? What medical purpose was served by performing and studying beheadings? None at all. That was just playing around. Professional people too like to play. His quote. I can see it. At a certain point, right?

Yeah, like... You're so desensitized. You're just performing war crimes for five years. Like, nothing means anything, you know? Yeah, you're just having coffee the morning of, and you're like, hey, I was spitballing. Like, what if we... What if we made him kiss?

That's the worst thing. They were like, whoa, we're not going to do that. That's crossing a line. I'll cut off my arm, please. Yeah, well, we're going to behead him. We're not going to make him do gay stuff. What are you do with the head? Yeah, dude.

I don't know. This is pretty morbid, I'll be honest. I don't enjoy knowing about how brutal human beings can be. But once again, as history has shown us, the most evil people that commit the most evil things, seems like they rarely ever have to answer for their crimes. What's crazy is that this was less than 100 years ago. Yeah, no, it was extremely recent. I wonder how many people died total. It seems like it's estimated that some of the biological warfare testing that was done killed an estimated 200,000 to 3,000. 300,000 people. I'm assuming that's both the actual executions and experiments that happen at UNO 731, as well as the chemical warfare that came from that, like the porcelain bombs and stuff like that. We should have dropped away more than two nukes on these people.

Jesus Christ. That's crazy. I knew about like Nan King and I knew about like the imperialism of Japan like taking over China, but I had no idea they were doing this shit. What I'm curious about is does it stop there? Like we get all this information. Like, do you think we just stopped medical weapons testing? Like, I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's versions of this that still go on today.

Yeah, but not on humans. No, of course not, dude. That whole 2020 thing was just a, it was a real thing that happened, bro. All right, I'm going off the rails. Once I get my conspiracy bean on, it just gets completely, completely side. What was Wuhan, the Wuhan lab testing on?

Was it on rats? I think so. Apparently bats as well, which is where, like, the whole bad thing came from, I think. Do you think it was a... Okay, so now we know it's a leak. Right? Allegedly.

No, we... That's like fact. Allegedly, bro. Are we going to get, like, CDC info, like, tagged on this video now? I mean, probably. That's fine. We know it's a leak. Seems like that way.

Okay. That they're doing gain of function research on COVID in Wuhan, and then they have the military games that happened right after. But was an intentional leak now? Or was it an accident? That, I guess, is up to what Twitter thread you're on. And I'm on the wrong one. It depends on which one you're reading. It was so stupid.

Do you guys remember the first month of the pandemic? They're like, yeah, like, they were eating bats. And we're like, we're so racist. Yeah, everyone was like... They eat that shit over there. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, we bought that. Those web markets.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. These bats. They're not going to try to hurt it. There's no way they were doing on purpose. It's more likely that they were just munching on a freaking bat. That's so stupid. Yeah. It's how racist we are.

Yeah, it is truly American racism. We're like, yeah, that's crazy. Also, the other part that I always find interesting when it comes to, like, I don't know, America, like, kind of not being, I feel like we kind of turn a blind eye to a lot of stuff despite all the atrocities that happen, like the syphilis experiments that happen in Tuskegee.

Yeah, yeah. What are you about to say? On the airmen? On the pilots? Is that the way? Is that what we were testing on, the Tuskegee Airmen? That's why they were so big? That's why they could fly.

they ended up gaining flight ability I think I don't know were they in planes or were they actually flying I think they were in planes but yeah so they were doing this in America recently how recently on the 70s

in 1970 31 or 1972 or 1972 is when it concludes but yeah they're doing civilist research on American citizens and then Americans are like oh they're not going to do that stuff again they do it to those people and you're like oh so that's racist

yeah that's another feature of America racism. We're like, yeah, they're not going to do that to us. Yeah, dude, 600 men, 400 of them get syphilis. What does syphilis do to you? I don't know. It's an STD, right?

I believe so. But untreated, I don't know what happens. Oh, nice moral dilemma question. Syphilis is incredibly treatable now and it doesn't lead to death anymore. That's what we were talking about on Flagrant. It was like, we were looking at this, and it's like, they eventually cured syphilis. and some people think partially because of some of these experiments.

And that goes back to your torture one person for the rest of their life or a million people get a speck of dust in the right at the same time. Actually, it's completely not bad, but... It is a trolley problem in a way. It's like the greater good. I just don't think the means just by the means almost ever. I'm not a utilitarian at all. I mean, it looks like, yeah, you get brain damage,

other organ failure, blindness, paralysis, dementia, even death. from an STD. Yes. SDDs are bad for you. Yeah, but I think, I thought SCDs is only if, I guess they affect your immune system, yeah. What would you rather? Let's do it. Hook up with a girl. Yeah. Get her pregnant.

Some random girl you don't know. And then deal with the consequences of that. She's going to have the baby. She got to like. She's hot? Yeah. Does she come from money? You don't really know. Does she make money? She's like a regular job. Like what?

She works in like a, like a fintech startup. Oh, okay. That's fine. or you get herpes treatable mouth or genital genital you're not going to die from it

but you do have herpes do I get herpes from herpes? Yeah and she has herpes she has herpes now you have herpes so would you rather get a girl pregnant knock her up and she has the baby

and then you gotta pay child support be the dad that steps up Why can't she be involved in her life why can't we get married? Do you want a married girl with herpes? No no no no Dude, no, if you had to choose. You could marry her, but then who knows if that's going to work out.

Well, given my recent relationship, spats, it's worth a try. I'd rather get the girl pregnant. Isn't that crazy? You'd rather be like, all right, I'm going to raise another human life for the rest of my life. Yeah, but, like, yeah, it's a burden, but it's also the greatest love you'll ever feel in your life as you can relate to. Mm-hmm. Or you have herpes. Yeah.

Would you rather pass on your last name for the rest of that? of eternity and be filled with the best feeling ever and, you know, hopefully you love this woman and you can raise a good life with each other. There's like the possibility of that. What if she doesn't want to be with you? She goes, you know what? I don't think we're going to work. I'm going to raise the kid on my own. You can, you know, sue for legal custody and see him on the weekends. But now you're like a deadbeat dad. You can't even see your own kid. Yeah, I'm not a deadbeat dad if I'm the one, if I'm being prohibited from seeing them. Sure. But now you have this kid that you love. You can't And I still have to pay like alimony?

How does that work? Child support. Oh, wow. Now, this is interesting. Because child support's rather expensive. I'm detached from my child, hopefully a son. Yeah. I don't know, but then you have to have that conversation every time you get with a woman there.

It's like, hey, before this gets any further, I have herpes. Yes. God, that's got to be tough. But I feel like after enough times of telling women, you might have like a fun bit. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you'd be like... You have a script.

You know the timing. Exactly. You know how to, like, lay it out to where they're like, oh, who cares, you know? Yeah, you should go up to them and be like... Have a gun. Have a weapon in their face. Yeah, no.

Oh, God. No, it's all around. I have the kid. I want kind of off topic. You think this is off topic, Christos? This is on topic. Can we just turn this into a boys up? This is so on topic, dude.

Anyway, yeah, that's one of the most evil doctors of all time. Shiro Ishi, who then just faced no consequences in life. And got a teaching cake. Yeah, and then takes over as the nudiest professor of all time. I wonder how he dies. I'd be curious to know what his actual death was. Let's see if God punished him. In his last years, Ishi could not speak clearly.

He was uncomfortable and on pain medication speaking in a harsh voice. 1959 he dies of laryngitis cancer laryngeal cancer at the age of 67 in Tokyo his funeral was chaired by the second in command this guy massagi katano

according to his daughter Ishi became a Roman Catholic before his death not great for the brain I mean not ideal for sure his daughter recalled an interview shortly before his death that his medical condition worsened. So it seems like God got his get back. Right? Like y'all... By recruiting another soldier to his religion?

Yo. The fuck. That is crazy. That unfortunately, because of, you know, Christ's sacrifice, it's possible that Shiroishi will be in heaven. Right? Like, that's a little... Like, if I get to heaven and I see him, I'm going to... I'm going to, unfortunately, I have to dapp him up, but I'm not going to be happy about it. No, you're going to dab him up and be like, can we record next Tuesday? This will be great for the... channel. This could be a good podcast. Do you think podcast exists in heaven? I think that's hell. Yeah, I think I'm describing hell. Yeah, dude. I mean, that's kind of crazy. His daughter says in an interview

that it's all over now was one of the last things that he said to were writing the message because he could no longer speak shortly before his death. He asked to be baptized by Dr. Herman Hoover's former president to Sophia University in Tokyo. That is the one loophole in Catholicism that I do not like. Which is? You can live the shittiest possible life committing atrocities to people. And then right before you're dead and you're like, hey, give me some of that holy water, baptize me. I love God.

I'm sorry for all I've done. Boom. Well, here's what's great about Catholicism is that technically you go to purgatory. Yeah, it's still not hell. Sure, but you got to go to purgatory for a while and you got to deal with what you did. That was my biggest fear in middle school. Pergatory? What if I'm in purgatory for just the longest time and the paper sucks?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't have a TV. Yeah, true. There's no sport. I just envisioned it as like a white room and I'm just sitting in a chair, tapping my foot. No, I think purgatory is probably torture. I think probably you get vivisected and then given the anthrax. And then after that you go to heaven.

And you get up there and you're like, that's. sucked. Yeah, that doesn't sound great. Not great. I mean, let me say evangelical heaven. There is no purgatory, so all those people go straight to heaven. Just skip. But yeah, one of the most evil doctors of all time.

Any final thoughts on this terrible person? Not really. I mean, I get the purpose of doing this all. Or like, I select the timing of it. It's like, all right, we're in war. We have all these prisoners. Now we can actually do like the fucked up studies that we've always wanted. wanted to do. But it does bring up an interesting moral dilemma where it's like the Tuskegee thing,

for example. We now have a cure for syphilis. So yeah, we treated these small, a small section of humans poorly in their lives, but how many people in the entirety of human history in the future did we save? I'm not trying to like justify it, but like it's an interesting question. John 316. What's that? God so love the world. He gave us one or only son to save all humanity. Okay. What do they have to do with it? Seems like you kill one guy to save everybody. Might be worth it. Catholicism made sense for a mound.

I guess what I will say to conclude is that if you are an evil doctor and you're going to perform, you know, terrible atrocities, make them really, really bad. Make them super evil. If you're going to do a cheap meal, fucking make sure it's a double-decker ice cream. If you're going to do, because if you're a doctor and you do some evil stuff, you're probably going to go to prison. There's many doctors that have done bad things that have gone to prison, right? Yeah. But if you're able to do the most evil thing you could

ever do, run an entire torture chamber and just massacre 200,000 people, then you can get off. It's like when a prisoner's in there for life, he's like, well, I might as well try to shank a CEO. I'm already here. Yeah. I'm already screwed. No, no, it's more like if you can go the most evil possible, then all of a sudden

your evilness can become data. And then you can broker a deal. You know what I mean? Like if you kill one person, that's like, oh, you got to go to prison. If you kill 200,000, then it's like, all right, let's learn something. One tragedy, or no, one death is a tragedy. Yeah. A million is a statistic.

Type shit, so I guess some statistics. And what's the most powerful currency in today's world? Data. Big data. You could sell this to meta. I'm just saying, I'm not condoning this, but if you are going to be an evil doctor, there's a way to get out of it. And that's just to write everything down, take some pictures, put it on Wikipedia,

and then, yeah, you just live out your life in Tokyo. Yeah, that's interesting. That's crazy. This guy... Maryland. Yeah, you go to Maryland. Have you ever had crab cakes this time of the year? Isn't that crazy?

He went to Maryland, was given protection, and then was like, I'm still going back to Japan. Do you think he went to Mugis? He probably popped into a couple comedy clubs while he was there. And, like, he died in, what, 59? Yeah. Like, he had access to movies? Like, he watched Citizen Kane. You know what I mean?

Like, that's crazy. This guy ran an entire execution chamber and then just got to chill. He was planning to kill Americans. And America was like, no, we can just give him protection. Orson Wells. Yeah. Big director. He loved Orson Wells.

Like, that's insane. When did Hitchcock? Hitchcock was making movies at this point, right? Oh, yeah. What's the movie? Not screen. Birds? No, the...

Oh, Psycho? Yeah, Psycho. Yeah, when did Psycho come out? 58 Wow Oh no 1960 Damn Oh he just missed it

What's his guy's name again Heroishi RIPI Hipp Hiroishi You would have love Psycho All right Thank you guys so much for tuning Into another episode of camp I hope you appreciate

Diving into the darkest corners In the internet But we'll be back next week With more interesting, fascinating information Chrisus David Thank you for joining me Of course See you next time

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