http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/unit_731.html For forty years the grisly activities of Japan's Unit 731 and sister units, remained the best kept secret of World War two. The victorious Allies were desperate to secretly acquire the expertise and know how of the Japanese Biological Warfare research. Fulsome records of the human experimentation undertaken, were especially sought. Hindered at home by social repulsion to such activities, human experimentation data was viewed as the jewel in the crown. Scientists and medical experts from Fort Detrick, Maryland - the American top secret BW facility - raced to interview Japanese technicians. Barely one of them stopped to consider the ethical implications. Having assessed the facts, an intelligence cable coldly informed the War Department, Washington DC, that the "foregoing information warrants conclusion that Japanese BW Group, headed by Ishii did violate rules of land warfare." The message added pragmatically: "this expression of opinion is not a recommendation that group be charged and tried as such." None of those implicated in Japanese BW research were brought to trial by the Allies.