Unit 731

The Book in 1 Sentence

A wave top review of the atrocities in human experimentation and torture, along with the details of the USA vs. USSR fight for Japanese scientist that committed those heinous acts.

Brief Review

I feel like this book took so much time to tell us so little. There is a lot of how the politics were played out in Japan, when the Allies came, and between the US and USSR. The stories at the end are interesting, but doesn't provide the insight I was looking for.

Why I Read this book

I knew that some of the experiments that were done provided remedies to things now and I was hoping to learn more about that.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

I think this book was presented as something like [[Operation Paperclip]], full of the details of what they did, why they did it, how they did it, and what the experiments have provided the future. However, that information was skimpy and you have more about the US politics to hide information from the USSR than anything like that.

For context, the German experiences described in Operation Paperclip, were things that allowed the world to have air and space travel. I know that the experiments by the Japanese gave us a lot of Information about frostbite, but it is only alluded to and passively dropped rather than explained.

The stories at the end have a sensationalism to them that I can't tell if it is because of time or how the sources were providing the information. There is something that while heinous and disastrous, feels either toned down or expanded on for one reason or another.

Rating

I think my issue is that I went into this book expecting something it wasn't. However, even looking at what it is, there feels like a lot is missing. I would have rather the stories be used as a narrative that the political information was framed around than just placed at the end. Maybe the author wasn't sure of the authenticity too and so wanted them for context, but couldn't use them for reality. I am giving this a 6 as it just felt light.

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