Immunity for Atrocity: Unit 731’s Secret Bargain

During World War II, Japan's Unit 731 conducted some of the most horrific human experiments in history. After the war, the doctors weren’t prosecuted—they were protected.

This episode of Unsettled: The Hidden Record exposes the deal struck between the U.S. government and the leaders of Unit 731, Japan's covert biological warfare program. From live vivisections to plague bomb testing, the unit’s crimes rivaled those of the Nazis—but instead of facing justice, its researchers handed over their data in exchange for immunity.

The United States saw strategic value in the results. So the atrocities were buried, the scientists repurposed, and the story largely erased from the postwar narrative.

What does it mean when truth is silenced in the name of progress? And how far was the U.S. willing to go to win the next war—even if it meant pardoning the crimes of the last?