Shirō Ishii

Surgeon General Shirō Ishii (石井 四郎, Ishii Shirō, [iɕiː ɕiɾoː]; June 25, 1892 – October 9, 1959) was a Japanese microbiologist, army medical officer, and war criminal who served as the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Shirō Ishii
Ishii in military uniform
Native name	石井 四郎
Born	(1892-06-25)June 25, 1892 Shibayama, Chiba, Japan
Died	October 9, 1959(1959-10-09) (aged 67) Tokyo, Japan
Allegiance	Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1921–1945
Rank	Surgeon general (lieutenant-general)
Commands held	Unit 731, Kwantung Army
Battles/wars	Second Sino-Japanese War World War II
Awards	Order of the Golden Kite, Fourth Class

Ishii led the creation and use of biological weapons at Unit 731 in Manchukuo during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, including the bubonic plague attacks at Chinese cities of Changde and Ningbo, and planned the Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night biological attack against the United States. Ishii and his coworkers also experimented with humans unethically, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people, most of them civilians or prisoners of war. Ishii was later granted immunity in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East by the United States government in exchange for information and research for the U.S. biological warfare program.