5. Human experimentation on Allied prisoners of war extended to the fatal injection of animal blood as part of the search for medically viable substitutes for front-line transfusions
As noted, much of the human experimentation conducted by the Empire of Japan on Allied prisoners of war was done in the name of preservation. Seeking to find more effective methods to protect and repair their own soldiers the Japanese were prepared to sacrifice those they captured in the course of the Second World War, individuals that were culturally viewed as innately inferior to the superior “Yamato” race. Consequently, much of the research that was conducted by Japanese scientists, notably those employed by Unit 731, focused on the conditional limits of survival, medicinal practices, and physiological endurance.
One such noteworthy medical experiment included the injection of animal blood into humans as a test case for blood transfusions. Horse blood was administered to Allied POWs to explore the possibility of using non-human blood as a substitute for increasingly scarce supplies of human blood on the front lines. Unsurprisingly, the procedure was a failure, resulting in the deaths of the prisoners in the trial. Similarly, prisoners were forcibly injected with concoctions including seawater; these tests, likewise, proved fatal.