When I was a child, the threat of nuclear war hung over the world, showing its psychological effects in fallout shelters being built across the country, practice air raids held in schools–I went to a Catholic grammar school so we knelt down between our desks and prayed the rosary–and numerous popular books written about the effects of nuclear war, such as Alas Babylon, Earth Abides, Rebirth and, perhaps the finest, A Canticle For Leibowitz.

But nuclear war has not happened yet, while another type of horrendous warfare has taken place repeatedly throughout history: biological warfare. Many combatants have used disease against their opposition with mixed results. Perhaps the most widespread use of such warfare was by the Japanese during World War II, attempts institutionalized in their Unit 731, whose purpose was experimenting on human subjects in the development of biological weapons which they used against their enemies.

Last Spring Derek Pickles sent me a clipping from the March 2, 2003 issue of Observer Magazine which detailed the horrors of Unit 731. Here are a few excerpts from that article which should chill you as fully as they did me:

Around 14,000 victims, referred to as “logs” by their captors and including at least eight Allied prisoners of war, were murdered in Unit 731 between 1936 and 1945.

Not a single Unit 731 prisoner escaped. Infected with deadly pathogens and kept under observation as the diseases ran their course before being subjected–without anesthetic–to live vivisections, the logs didn’t stand a chance.

Ishii [the scientist who founded the lab] widened his tests to include Chinese civilians in 1940 before finally utilizing his expertise against Chinese troops in 1942.

After the war...every member of the laboratory’s upper ranks went on to be employed by Japan’s most respected scientific bodies.

Rough records kept in Quzhou County...shows that more than 300,000 people contracted a range of mysterious illness from 1940 to 1948 and at least 50,000 died.

For more than half a century, the Japanese government has refused to admit Unit 731 even existed.

Far from being outraged by [Ishii]’s crimes, Western governments regarded the knowledge Ishii had gathered as a treasure trove and a deal was struck–protection for those involved in Unit 731 in return for a full share in its findings.

Last December, America delivered a stunning blow to international efforts to curb the proliferation of biological weapons by pulling out of an international conference in Geneva just minutes before the three-week meeting was due to end, because it opposed spot checks into their own laboratories and military bases.

A few thoughts occurred to me reading this article:

1. The Japanese government has gone to great lengths since World War II to portray themselves as innocent of any crimes, supported by the United States government which abandoned the Tokyo War Crime Trials abruptly when Mao’s communists took control of China. America decided having a “friend” in East Asia was more important than the pursuit of justice.

2. What is America trying to hide by refusing to allow spot checks of our own labs? Are we now producing biological and chemical weapons to be used against our enemies? Is America the Japan of the 21st century?

3. Does America’s current militaristic government frighten you as much as it frightens me?