title: U.S. responses to Japanese wartime inhuman experimentation after World War II.
abstract: In 1945-46, representatives of the U.S. government made similar discoveries in both Germany and Japan, unearthing evidence of unethical experiments on human beings that could be viewed as war crimes. The outcomes in the two defeated nations, however, were strikingly different. In Germany, the United States, influenced by the Canadian physician John Thompson, played a key role in bringing Nazi physicians to trial and publicizing their misdeeds. In Japan, the United States played an equally key role in concealing information about the biological warfare experiments and in securing immunity from prosecution for the perpetrators. The greater force of appeals to national security and wartime exigency help to explain these different outcomes.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brody
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: Jing-Bao
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weindling
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D032781:Codes of Ethics; D028661:Complicity; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D007723:Korea / Q000208:ethnology; D028683:National Socialism; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D063505:Racism; D012637:Security Measures; D014586:USSR; D014481:United States; D014858:War Crimes / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014857:Warfare / Q000941:ethics*; D047789:World War II