Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

As we approach the 80^th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, questions remain on whether the use of nuclear weapons was justified by the American government.  In today’s world the nuclear weapons are far more powerful, and more nations possess these weapons of mass destruction than at a time when only a few nations had this destructive capability.  Israel’s and America’s attacks on Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear capabilities make this issue as relevant today as it was in 1945.

Recently, a movie, Dead to Rights, which showed the war crimes committed by the Japanese in Nanjing, was released in China. I watched as viewers openly wept as they viewed the terrible things that were depicted in the movie.  On July 31^st, the release of another movie in China, 731, will also be about Japanese war crimes committed against Chinese civilians (as well as others, including American POWs) before and during WWII.

In Nanjing, 300,000 people were murdered at the hands of the Japanese military.  Japanese troops lined up thousands of people and machine-gunned them. They had sword competitions to see who could kill the most people. Beginning in 1932, captured women (as young as age 10) were used as sex slaves to boost the morale of Japanese troops as “gifts from the emperor” and were known as comfort women (lantu). Throughout Asia, the Japanese set up secret biological and chemical weapons factories to produce terrible weapons, and this was all done with the blessings of the Japanese leadership.  The most notorious of these factories was Unit 731.  All of this was under the supervision and planning of the Japanese government in the 1930s and 40’s.

It was in Unit 731 (sometimes referred to as the Asian Auschwitz) where there were a variety of horrible experiments that were sanctioned by the Japanese government.  A plan to invade America with balloons carrying bubonic plague was devised by the Japanese military, which would be sent to the West Coast of America; however, it didn’t happen.  Although balloons were launched by the Japanese and one of them took the lives of six Americans  (5 of them children) in Oregon. Frostbite experiments, vivisection, raping women and infecting them with venereal diseases, poison gas experiments, etc., were all things that happened in Unit 731.

There were other units that sought to create devastating chemical and biological weapons: Unit 100 in Manchuria, Unit 1855 in Beijing, Unit 1644 in Nanjing, Unit 8604 in Guangzhou, and Unit 9420 in Singapore.  Each unit with 1 purpose: to create terrible weapons that would help Japan devastate its enemies.

The commander in charge of Unit 731 was Shiro Ishii.  Estimates of victims that were experimented on during the camp’s existence number at approximately 3,000; however, the true number will never be known.  Strains of plague (far more powerful than the strain that wiped out 1/3 of Europe in the Middle Ages), cholera, typhoid, and anthrax were unleashed into China, and estimates of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were affected by this violation of the Geneva Convention.

These atrocities are not taught in Japanese history classes, nor are they taught in most American history classes, because, unlike the Germans, who proudly displayed what they did, the Japanese leadership knew what they were doing was wrong and kept it covert.  There were no survivors of Unit 731 because they were efficiently exterminated, and we only know what happened because of the confessions of staff members of the camp.

Unlike Nazi war criminals, Ishii was never put on trial for his role in crimes against humanity.  In exchange for information from these experiments, he was given immunity by the American government and was allowed to live out his life, despite being responsible for snuffing out the lives of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

There were over 3600 members on staff in Unit 731, but few were ever punished for their role in the rape, torture, and murder of innocent people.  The Japanese government actually denied the existence of the unit until 1998, when its Supreme Court indirectly acknowledged it by ruling there was an academic consensus that Unit 731 existed.  It wasn’t until 2015 that the first list of names of 731’s war criminals was released; however, this information was heavily redacted, and Japan continues to deny culpability in these war crimes.

Sadly, civilians do pay for what their governments do.  The horrific policies of Japanese leadership that led to war crimes are similar to the horrific war crimes committed by Hamas that led to the retaliation of Israeli forces into Gaza.  The gang rapes, murders of civilians, and taking of hostages to use as human shields have led to the devastation of innocent civilians, much like what happened to innocent people at the hands of the Japanese.

American apologists for the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities are similar to the Hamas supporters who deny that it was Hamas who instigated what is currently happening in Gaza.  The protests from around the world and on college campuses, where people shout, “From the River to the Sea,” are reminiscent of the Japanese philosophy of bushido (the way of the warrior), which had them view their victims as subhuman and justified their torture and murder.

The names, nationalities, and religions of the barbarians who choose to destroy innocent lives, as well as their victims, change from war to war and generation to generation.  However, these crimes against humanity prove that regardless of international documents against the use of specific weapons and targeting civilians will always be at risk for such uncivilized actions because there are no rules for aggressors.

Whether or not the atomic bombing was a payback for Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, or other atrocities committed by the Japanese during WWII, no one will ever know.  The sad reality is that innocent people died, just as innocent people are dying in the Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Israel, Iran and other places because their leaders know they, in most cases, will be safe and it’s their civilian populations that bear the brunt of war and the war crimes that inevitably happen over people on the front lines of war torn places.

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Michael Matteo

Michael Matteo is an educator, produced playwright and screenwriter. He has written or co-written 4 books including one of the first jokebooks to make fun of political correctness.He owned a business for 19 years, and has been teaching for over 30 years.Currently he lives and works as head of the humanities department at private, international school in Chengdu, China.

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