The Cold War and the Tokyo International Military Tribunal: The Ishii Case

• In Event: Bacteriological Warfare, International Justice, and the Cold War in the Far East, 1945–53

Abstract

At the end of WWII, the U.S. arrested Lt. General Shiro Ishii and a number of the most prominent members of his biological warfare (BW) team – Unit 731 – which had overseen most of wartime Japan’s gruesome biological warfare program. After the war, the U.S. interrogated Ishii and members of his team, ultimately granting them immunity from prosecution in return for detailed information about Japan’s BW program. By 1947, when the Soviets asked for the opportunity to interrogate Ishii and others, the U.S. military was deeply involved in the development of its own BW program, and feared that if it agreed to Moscow’s request, which it turned down, it would affect the security and defense of the U.S.

Author

• David M. Crowe, Elon U