Unit 1855 was a unit for human experimentation that belonged to the central Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the North China Army of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, stationed in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

between 1938 and 1945. Unit 1855 was established by the North China Army in 1938. The unit was located in a facility not far from the

Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...

in Beijing, and had a staff of about 2000 men. The unit was commanded by the

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

Col.

Nishimura Yeni Nishimura (written: ) is the 46th most common Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Akihiro Nishimura (politician) (born 1960), Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party *Akihiro Nishimura (footballer) (born 1958), Ja ...

, who reported directly to Shirō Ishii at Unit 731. According to the testimony of the Korean Choi Hyung Shi, who worked as an interpreter with Unit 1855 between 1942 and 1943, the Unit conducted experiments with

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

and

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

on Chinese and Korean immigrants to China: :"When I first arrived there, some one hundred prisoners were already in the cells. Whenever the Japanese doctors made contact with the people being tested, they always did so through an interpreter. The test subjects were infected with plague, cholera and typhus. Those not yet infected were kept in different rooms. There were large mirrors in the rooms with the subjects so that those undergoing the testing could be observed better. I spoke with the prisoners using a microphone and looking through the glass panel, interpreted the questions from the doctors: "Do you have diarrhea? Do you have a headache? Do you feel chilly?" The doctors made careful records of all answers. With the typhus test, ten people were forced to drink a mixture of the germs, and five were administered the vaccine. The two groups were separated from each other. The vaccine proved effective with all five to whom it was administered. The other five suffered horribly. In the plague tests, the prisoners suffered with chills and fever, and groaned in pain...until they died. From what I saw, one person was killed every day." It has been estimated, that Unit 1855 killed about 1000 people between 1938 and 1945. The unit evacuated the facilities in Beijing during the Japanese defeat in 1945, and the Chinese entered the building, which was not destroyed and was still standing as of 1996.

Branches

Unit 1855 had a branch in

Chinan Jinan (), alternately romanized as Tsinan, is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city in Shandong. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the hist ...

, which was a combination of prison and experiment center.Hal Gold,
Unit 731 Testimony
', Yenbooks: Singapore, 1996

References

{{IJA special research units Japanese biological weapons program Imperial Japanese Army Japanese human subject research Military history of Beijing Medical experimentation on prisoners Japanese war crimes