22. Saved By the Bomb
Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night was scheduled for September 22nd, 1945, but the atomic bombing of Japan in August ended the war. Japan formally surrendered on September 2nd, less than three weeks before the launch date of Shiro Ishii’s plan to infect America with the plague.
After the war, it was estimated that Ishii’s germ warfare and experiments had killed anywhere from tens of thousands to 400,000 Chinese from bubonic plague, anthrax, cholera, and other diseases. According to the most reliable recent estimate, from the 2002 International Symposium on the Crimes of Biological Warfare, victims of the Japanese biological warfare overseen by Ishii numbered as high as 580,000. Yet, the Japanese doctor never faced a war crimes tribunal, nor was he ever held accountable for his horrific deeds.