In addition to the bacteriological warfare troops, the Japanese army also had a notorious poison gas unit in China, Unit 516, the full name of which was Unit 516 of the Kwantung Army Chemical Unit.
At the end of World War I, the Japanese army began to study chemistry and set up a special research institute, which was developed into a regular model after many experiments. In 1941, the experimental and research institute for poison gas and biological warfare was expanded and reorganized into the Sixth Army Technical Research Institute, and many of its members were professors from universities or colleges such as Tokyo Imperial University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tohoku Imperial University, Hokkaido Imperial University, and Oita Imperial University.
In line with this, the Shino School opened by the Japanese army provided special training for those who studied and carried out poison gas warfare, and the graduates here were all assigned to the Sixth Research Institute of the Army, specializing in the research and manufacture of poison gas, and at the same time, they were members of the 516th Unit of the Kwantung Army and reserve officers commanding the poison gas unit.
Unit 516 essentially carried out large-scale experiments and applications of poison gas developed by the Sixth Technical Research Institute of the Japanese Army. From the south to the north, from the east to the west, on the battlefield of China's resistance against Japan, this devilish army was everywhere, and its crimes were too numerous to mention.
In 1941, when the Pacific War broke out, a serious incident of carbon monoxide poisoning occurred in the Rabao Fortress, a base base of the Japanese Naval Air Corps, amid the rumbling of artillery. Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, and once the hemoglobin in the blood meets carbon monoxide, it will prevent oxygen from entering the body, causing brain cells to lack oxygen and die easily.
The Japanese army, which was originally limited in numbers, was greatly threatened. In order to uncover the truth about the poisoning, Units 516 and 731 received orders from the base camp for them to "study together". From about June 1943, officers of Unit 516 were secretly sent to Unit 731, and the two ostensibly unrelated units began to study evil with Chinese as experimental living subjects.
Joint experiments on poison gas in the camouflaged laboratories of Units 731 and 516 were carried out mainly in the summer. The location is in a depression about 4 kilometers northwest of the 731 headquarters. It has a small courtyard, enclosed by a reed mat connected to a section of brick wall, and has a shabby appearance, much like a dilapidated ruin.
Through the thin outer wall, there is another thick wall inside. Behind the two walls there are two rooms of different sizes and special fits. The large one is about 10 square meters, and the small one is about 3 square metersThe large house is surrounded by steel plates, the ceiling is equipped with a fan, and there is a stove-type poison gas reaction device below, that is, the poison gas generation room;The small house is a bit like a street pavilion, the roof and corners are covered with iron sheets, and the four walls are equipped with special glass, which is convenient for the outside world to observe, take pictures and record.
The big house is connected to the cottage by pipes. The blower and electricity outside the house are the operating devices. As soon as it is operated, the fan can be activated to send the prepared poison gas into the hut. There is a section of railroad track on the ground in front of the hut, which leads directly into the house, which is used for carrying "big roads".
Units 731 and 516 conducted the most inhumane poison gas experiments at the seemingly ruined testing ground.
Modern poison gases can be divided into 6 categories and 14 types:
The first type is irritating poison gas, also known as tear gas, that is, the kind of poison commonly used by the military and police in some countries to control and maintain social order
The second type is erosive agents, which can seriously damage human cell tissues, ** blistering erosion, and at the same time, damage human eyes and respiratory tract;
The third type is a poison that can cause disordered thinking and motor dysfunction in people;
The fourth category is systemic toxic rapid anticides, which mainly destroy the oxidative function of human cells and cause systemic hypoxic death
The fifth category is ventricular poisons, which injure people's lungs, cause pulmonary edema, and suffocate to death in severely poisoned people;
The sixth category is nerve agents, which enter the human body through the respiratory tract and **, destroying the normal function of the human nervous system, and is particularly toxic.
Since the end of World War I, Japan has been researching poison gas, and has set up special research institutes and actual combat units, and by the time of World War II, it had at least nine types of poison gas and poison gas shells in four categories. Among them, Huang No. 1 mustard gas is erosive poisonous gas, with a smell similar to mustard, and people's ** is like being burned when it is stained with this poisonous gas, first blisters, then ulcers, and finally erodes the whole body, and the skin and flesh will be rotten;
Huang No. 2 Lewis gas is a fast-acting erosive gas, which can directly penetrate into the human ** and optic nerve, injure the lungs and pharynx, cause dyspnea, and its death is indescribable
Green and red, that is, carbon cool chlorine hall and biphenyl cyano foot belong to irritating gas, the former suffocates people to death, the latter makes people vomit and tears, and the cyanic acid called "tea" is the original invention of the Japanese army, which belongs to asphyxiating poisonous gas. Once inhaled, the person fuses with the protein in the blood, causing the person to die of suffocation due to lack of oxygen.