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This phase included human experiments such as figuring out the minimal dosages necessary for infection and for lethality. (The BW experiments were not conducted on US PoWs, but rather on Chinese criminal sentenced to death, at least 3000 were subjected to these horrific experimentations.) Unit 731's General Ishii Shiro then began to experiment on possible uses of BW as an offensive tool. This phase (1940-1941) starts the field tests, such as artillery shells and bombs with BW agents and crop destruction in China. So Chinese civilians (!) and soldiers are subjected to these tests a total of 12 times. Mostly unsuccessfully, thankfully: a total of 25946 people were infected after 6 tests according to data from the papers of Kaneko Junichi, a Japanese doctor who was part of Unit 731.

[I don't know how many of them subsequently died.] To me it seems clear that this is following a very similar pattern to many military research. 'The enemy has a devilish plan! We must defend against it by making our own!' You make out the enemy to be inhuman, and in the process you yourself become inhuman. Final point: Some people have accused the US of using BW during the Korean War and that because of this, there's massive cover up of the activities of Unit 731 even today. (The US government gave Unit 731 immunity from war crime prosecutions in exchange for their data.) There's no way to know for sure if the cover up is still going on or if all the information has been released, so for now I will only go with the documentary evidence that we have available instead of the hearsay that may or may not be accurate.

The unit was commissioned to develop biological warfare weapons--spreading disease amongst the enemy while keeping themselves from getting sick. Another thing the unit worked on was venereal diseases--a serious problem among all fighting units in wartime. They infected people with venereal diseases, then watched what happened.

They also studied the effects of cold and frostbite--how much a person could endure, what happened when they thawed, how to treat it. They studied the effects of infection with various diseases, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. That was the thinking behind such horrors as autopsying a person while they were still alive and conscious--they wanted them alive to study and see the body's reaction to the infection but didn't want to bother wasting anesthesia on them. All of these were issues that armies faced, so it was all practical. Not only did they intend to use this research, they did use this research, in many cases for years afterwards. They'd publish it in medical journals, and say they had studied 'monkeys'.

But it was really wartime research on people. And not only that, but the United States didn't prosecute these monsters at the war crimes trials, instead electing to free them in exchange for their cooperation in sharing their research findings with the United States. Yes, Mengele's research was mostly quackery. He did have a mentor, Dr. Verschuer, whom Mengele supplied 'samples' to.

My understanding is that Verschuer was much more scientific. He actually managed to do quite well in the post-war era, becoming a leading geneticist in West Germany. I can't say the same for Unit 731, my guess would be that their research was more 'scientific' because they did manage to unleash a plague in China during the war. I'm unaware if their research was ever used after the war. My impression is that the Unit 731 'research' did have a bit more science behind it and was more methodical.

Manual For Creative Model Makers Lathes. They had specific aims that had practical applications. So let's say it was more methodical than Mengele's research, which was more along the lines of 'let's see what happens if I pull the wings off this fly. But with people'. But it was also torture. There was no scientific principle behind dissecting people while they were still conscious. Plus there were rapes and horrors I won't get into.