Shirō Ishii Was Imperial Japan’s Master of Biowarfare

I'm sure the Nazis were a part of those programs too, right? I mean, when they start doing that. The Japanese guy who's like worse than fucking Mengele, I can't remember what it's called, it's so crazy the shit this guy did to people. And he got, they wanted to know what he learned from his human medical experiments. So they let him off. Oh Jesus Christ. I wish I remember the name of it. The Japanese, but it's mostly done to Chinese prisoners. But like, you know, cold and pressure and all. It's fucking grisly, dude. And it's just, he did so many amoral, like, experiment. There's knowledge that helps humanity that they got. Same reason we go put that great cold in the record in space. The people had useful knowledge. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Educate yourself if that's... Look, it's more important that you tell us how many pounds of pressure it takes to crush a little kid's head. Yeah, we did not know that officially. Officially. Tell us what you got. Jesus Christ, it just let him go. Imagine being that guy who killed like hundreds of people and they just let you go. Imagine you like eating ice cream at a diner. Just fucking sitting by yourself drinking a cup of coffee. You're eating ice cream. No one even knows. And you're like, thank you. I'd like one more, please. Didn't they have that...oh, here it is. Shiro Ishii, that's the guy. That's the guy? Jesus Christ. He led in development and application of biological weapons at Union 731. And how do you say that word? Manchukuo? Manchukuo? How do you say that? Manchukuo? Yeah. Manchukuo? The U and the O together? How do you say that? Probably just smooth it, basically. Manchukuo? Anyway, how are we saying it? During the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, including the bubonic plague attacks. Oh, and there was...yeah. On Chinese cities. Oh my God. Yeah. And the planned attack against the United States in Operation Cherry Blossoms. Holy fuck, man. Oh, isn't that the one where they would send the balloons across the country? Yeah, it didn't. Yeah, it didn't work. What were they going to do with Operation Cherry Blossoms at night? Imagine just like, this is my plan. Operation Cherry Blossoms at night. Biowarefare. They're going to drop bubonic plague, color, a smallpox, and they're at the spot. Oh my God. Oh my God. So they were going to do that to America in balloons? Is that what they were going to do? I think the thing I saw... And to come at us in the...through our most vulnerable way, our love of balloons. Yeah, no one would ever want them for... Who would resist? Isn't that a fucking song? Ninety-nine red balloons go by. That was about Shiro Ishii, 99 Luft Balloons. That was a big song when I was in high school. Yeah. The girl was cute. Yeah. Okay, these killed six American civilians near Bly, Oregon. I thought they didn't kill anyone. Crashed into a farm in Medford, Oregon and caused a short circuit on the power lines, supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor, cooling pumps, and the Manhattan Project's production facility. Holy shit, dude. Did you know that? What were they dropping on him? They had balloons with bombs attached to them. But was it supposed to be with plague or something? Well, I don't know. Jamie said that was part of it. But what I did here on...there was an episode they did about this on one of my favorite podcasts, which is Radio Lab. Radio Lab did a whole series or a whole episode, rather, about these balloons, that people would find these non-detonated balloons. And I think people accidentally blew themselves up a couple of times. Wow. Yeah. I think people found them and then they found out after the war about the project. But I think a bunch of them made it here, and some of them went off and some of them didn't go off. It's contaminated fleas. They were dropping contaminated fleas. Oh my God, that's so dark. Jesus Christ, I'm so glad we're friends with Japan now. That's such a dark blue. In China, all the bad guys, I'd watch the local TV, so everything is about a mean Japanese general and a brave Chinese somebody is... Really? Yeah. Oh my God. That's how Nazis and...Nazis are a pop culture. Go to like we always use as a villain. Yeah. That Japan is that to China.