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Euphemistically labeled as the "Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration" and "HippoEpizootic Administration" of the Imperial Japanese Army, Unit 731 and Unit 100, as well as their subsidiary branches, performed human experimentation on the innocents under the leadership of Dr. Ishii Shiro. Although the exact number of victims is unclear since the Japanese destroyed most of the evidence at the end of the war, but it ranged from 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children.

Based on a true story, The Undrowning Lotus centers on Chunhua who grew up during the opium crisis in Shanxi, located in Northern China. After being sold as a child bride, her feet were bounded by her in-laws, a popular practice in China at the time. She worked on the farm day and night while trying to find meaning in her life. As communism rose in China, she became a revolutionary. This allowed her to contribute to her country at a time of civil war in China.

During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, it promised many opportunities for young scientists who want to utilize this colony. Ishii Shiro seized the occasion, and with funding from the War Ministry of Imperial Japan, he founded Unit 731, a biological and chemical warfare research and development unit. He recruited the brightest minds from Japan to conduct human experiments, developed bubonic plague bombs, and tested biological and chemical weapons.

Unit 731 was established during the Sino-Japanese War in Harbin as a covert biological warfare research and development section of the Imperial Japanese Army. Besides human experimentation, they developed lethal biological weapons as an efficient way to win the war against the world. In about a decade of existence, they produced a massive amount of germs enough to kill the world three times.

Eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army launched an invasion plan for Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong was a British Colony at the time, soldiers from British colonies including India and Canada fought alongside Chinese guerrilla fighters. However, soldiers defending the city at the time were largely unprepared and Japan claimed its victory within 18 days.

On December 16, 1945, Prince Konoe committed suicide after refusing to collaborate with US Army officer Bonner Fellers in Operation Blacklist. His refusal to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family of war crimes responsibilities. A week before he took the cyanide, he wrote a memoir regarding his experience governing Imperial Japan during World War 2. The memoir shows many efforts of Prince Konoe's efforts for negotiations with Chinese and US government officials to try to end the war early as well as his governing during a time of crisis.

Although the west often dismissed the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial as "Communist Propaganda", it was the first time the scientists from the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department" of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) came forward with the crimes they committed during World War II. The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were hearings held between 25-31 December 1949 in the Soviet Union's Stalinist courts, and lasted for five days. It unearthed cruel biological weapon development and human experimentation practices by the Japanese Imperial Army.