INTRODUCTION

Although the notorious Nazi doctors are an archetype of the dark and evil side of modern medicine, the Nuremberg Trials have brought most criminals to justice and the ten principles formulated in the Nuremberg Code, a founding document of contemporary medical ethics, and in particular the principle of consent, is still guiding ethical medical research and practice (see Chapters 49–51 and 54). Unfortunately, there exists an Asian counterpart of Nazi medicine: Japanese doctors inhumanly experimented on human subjects in East Asia, mainly in China, from the early 1930s to the end of World War Ⅱ. The experiments performed by Nazis and those undertaken by Japanese doctors are similar in that both involved the intentional killing, torture, and harm of human beings in the name of national interests, science, and medicine. Even more unfortunately, as a result of complex political and historical factors, including an American cover-up, Japanese denials, and the relative silence and nonaction of two Chinese governments, Japanese medical atrocities are far less publicized than those conducted by the Nazi doctors. Until very recently, medical ethicists – international, Japanese, and Chinese included – have ignored Japanese doctors’ inhuman experimentation and its ethical challenges. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief account of Japanese doctors’ wartime experimentation and the aftermath, and then, to address ethical issues raised by this disturbing history.