Reviews for Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1995

The average rating for Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1995 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-26 00:00:00 Gabriel Levy This tells the tale of Japan’s history of Biological Warfare. There is a focus her on Dr. Shiro Ishii, a sociopathological scientist who headed the Japanese program. They began studying how to develop BW weaponry in the 20s and 30s in earnest, and were not shy about using what they had learned, bringing plague, literally, to millions. It is a gruesome tale, with descriptions of the activities that took place at special “camps” where these evil people used humans as guinea pigs. One common bit of work was to infect a prisoner with a particular disease, then vivisect the victim without the benefit of anesthesia to see how the disease had progressed. They even engaged in bizarre experiments. In one, they removed a prisoner’s hands and then restored them on the opposite hands. Only a few of their victims ever escaped. Over 20,000 died in the camps, and hundreds of thousands, millions were murdered with their evil weapons. After WW II, Ishii and his associates hooked up with MacArthur and were recruited by the USA. Ishii taught us what he had learned and we applied that knowledge in the Korean War. I hope we washed thoroughly after that.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-08 00:00:00 Zan Agee Trigger warnings: war, violence, medical experimentation on humans including children, rape, vivisection, biological warfare, death, mentions of cannibalism. This was very important reading because so much of what we hear about the atrocities of WWII is focused on the Holocaust. Which, like, FAIR. But also, there's this shit and h.o.l.y. y.i.k.e.s. Basically, Japan was performing a whole lot of incredibly horrifying things on civilians and POWs in China from like 1937 through until the end of the war. People were infected with all manner of infectious diseases just to see what would happen. Male prisoners were forced to rape female prisoners so that the doctors could track the progress of venereal diseases. Any children born as a result were experimented on too. Highly infectious diseases like bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax, typhoid and typhus were experimented with. Bombs full of infected insects were released over civilian towns just to see what would happen. Plague-ridden fleas were released over entire communities. Estimates state that between the medical experimentation in death camps and the biological warfare, nearly 600,000 people died in China. And, unlike Europe, only a handful of people survived the camps. It's a fascinating but stomach-churning read. Barenblatt has clearly done extensive research and presents things in a somewhat clinical but utterly compelling fashion. So I honestly can't say that I enjoyed this book, I can't say that this 4 star rating fits with the "really liked it" that Goodreads suggests. But it was a very educational and eye-opening read. So. There's that. (Seriously though: don't read if you're at all squeamish)