Are there any links between the research gained from the Japanese human experimentation done in WW2 at 'Unit 731' and Project MKUltra?

by blaaaahhhhh

Japanese human experimentation during the war:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

American human experimentation after the war

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra

It's understood that one of the allied nations took all research material from the scientists/researchers in exchange for immunity from war crimes.

I couldn't find much information on what was done with the information gained, but it seems that it could somehow link to MKUltra.

Is there any material on this that would suggest that?

tiredstars

I've not seen any suggestion of a link between the two; I'm not sure what the link would be. I would have expected any useful findings from Unit 731 to go into the United States' general chemical & biological weapons programme.

The general aim of MKUltra was into "mind control", but with a very strong focus on use of drugs, particularly newly developed psychedelics, for interrogations. This doesn't seem to fit with the aims or methods of Unit 731.

The initial stimulus for MKUltra seems to have come primarily from two sources. First, the apparent 'brainwashing' of American captives in the Korean war, the desire to defend against this, and to make use of it. Second, the development of psychedelic drugs and their perceived potential for manipulating or breaking down people's perceptions and consciousness.

There was also a separate investigation by the US military into the use of psychedelics in warfare. I don't know so much about this, but it's hard to see any potential link with Unit 731 - in fact, the point was to make a more humane alternative to the US' WMD arsenal, a chemical weapon which would incapacitate the enemy without causing serious harm.