Unit 731 and the American Cover-upThe Second Sino-Japanese War began on July 7, 1937 and ended on September 9, 1945. It was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan . As part of the fight against fascism, Japan invaded China. It is clear that, due to the restriction of its natural resources, Japan sought to increase its power by stealing other countries' resources. Japan used conquered Manchuria as a launch base for its troops. Manchuria was a huge region made up of three provinces: Liaoning in the south, Jilin in the center, and Heilongjiang in the north. In 1905, when Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia, which used Manchuria for commercial and industrial purposes, was forced to cede its leasehold property in the Kwantung to the Japanese. This location gave Russia control over Port Arthur, Dairen, and much of the Kwantung Promontory in southern Liaoning. Japan was now the leading foreign power in Manchuria. The new Japanese masters of South Manchuria employed several plans to improve both economic and political control of the area. Although Japan had been one of the 145 countries that signed the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned biological weapons, the Japanese believed that they needed to create these weapons to become powerful and feared by other countries around the world. All their hopes came from a man some consider genius and others consider a monster, General Shiro Ishii. Shiro Ishii was born on June 25, 1892, in the village of Chiyoda Mura, Chiba region. He was born into a wealthy family, his family owned more land than anyone else in their area, with this land power came privilege. Because of her family's status,... middle of paper... Erica desperately wanted to have an advantage over the Soviets. However, the Japanese cunningly did not hand over any data for several years until they were granted immunity. In the spring of 1948 the agreement was concluded. The Japanese handed over some of their documents and the United States granted them their freedom. Shiro has returned to live his life in Japan. On October 9, 1959, Ishii died a natural death in Tokyo. He was considered a hero in Japan. Details of the unit were not made public for many years because the US government treated the matter privately. They did not release information about the units or their results. The world was shocked to discover Unit 731 and how the Americans hid the operation for their own benefit. It is estimated that over 580,000 people died in Unit 731 and as a result of their experiments.