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Murray Sanders

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Murray Sanders
Sanders in 1945.
Birth nameMurray Jonathan Sanders
BornApril 11, 1910
Chelsea, Massachusetts, US
DiedJune 29, 1987
Delray Beach, Florida, US
AllegianceUnited States
Service / branch United States Army
Years of service1943–1949
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
Battles / warsWorld War II
AwardsLegion of Merit
Alma materTufts University (B.S.)
Rush Medical College (M.D.)

Murray Jonathan Sanders (April 11, 1910 - June 29, 1987) was an American physician and military officer who was involved with the U.S. Army's biological warfare program during World War II. He was heavily involved in the American cover-up of Japanese war crimes, having been the U.S. officer who convinced General Douglas MacArthur to grant legal immunity to members of the infamous Japanese Unit 731 chemical warfare research unit, despite the unit's practice of unethical human experimentation.

Sanders was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1966 for his efforts in devising a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was also the first to identify adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis, a viral infection of the eye.

Early life and education

Murray Sanders was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on April 11, 1910. He studied microbiology at Tufts University and Rush Medical College,[1][2] graduating from the latter in 1931 with an MD in the field. Sanders also received further training at Columbia University, eventually becoming a professor of microbiology at its College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he engaged in polio research.[3]

Military service

Sanders was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 and was stationed at Fort Detrick, where he became involved with the army's research and development of biological weapons. Sanders performed a number of classified experiments and investigations at Detrick,[1] including some with disastrous results; during experiments involving brucellosis and tularemia, many scientists on Sanders' team ended up falling ill with the virus. According to Sanders, there were "casualties in the workplace", and an experiment by his team nearly resulted in the death of the infant Gifford Pinchot III, grandson of Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot. After Sanders informed the elder Pinchot of his grandson's condition, in a meeting where Supreme Court justice Hugo Black was also present, Sanders was placed under house arrest for 48 hours.[4]

In addition to his experiments at Detrick, Sanders was responsible for the poisoning of a German agent with staphylococcus, and proposed the use of biological weapons infused with botulism. In 1945, following the discovery of a Japanese balloon near Butte, Montana, Sanders led an investigation that concluded that the Japanese Empire was planning to wage biological warfare on the United States through the dropping of anthrax-infused bombs on targets along the Pacific Coast.[4]

Granting of immunity to Unit 731

Sanders had been aware of Japan's biological warfare program since 1944, when he was informed of the poisoning of wells by Japanese troops in Manchuria.[4] Following the surrender of Japan and the Allied occupation that followed, Sanders was selected by General Douglas MacArthur to head an investigation into Japan's biological warfare activity. Sanders traveled to Japan aboard the ship Sturgess, arriving in Yokohama in September 1945. One of the first Japanese scientists Sanders interviewed was Ryoichi Naito, who initially denied any accusations of having conducted unethical human experimentation, stating that the Japanese military had engaged solely in defensive research, and that experimenting on humans was "clearly against humanity".[5] While unknown to Sanders at the time, Naito secretly conferred with Japanese officials regarding the progress of his discussions with the Americans.[6] After Sanders threatened to hand Naito and other scientists over to the Soviet Union, however, head scientist Shirō Ishii agreed to send Sanders a manuscript which detailed their activities whilst headquartered at Harbin. According to Sanders, the manuscripts contained clear proof of human experimentation, though this evidence was omitted from his final reports to MacArthur.[4]

The headquarters of Unit 731.

After reviewing the data provided by those involved in Unit 731, Sanders presented the findings to MacArthur, stating that he believed the data to contain valuable information that must not end up in Soviet hands. Knowing that the physicians had fled their headquarters in order to avoid prosecution by the Soviets for war crimes, Sanders suggested that MacArthur grant the physicians involved legal immunity against any war crimes charges in exchange for their data, stating, "My recommendation is that we promise Naito that no one involved in [bioweapons] will be prosecuted as war criminal".[7][8] MacArthur agreed with Sanders's proposal, believing the data “almost incalculable and incredibly valuable to the United States”,[9] and agreed to grant the unit's physicians immunity from prosecution as long as they exchanged their data with only the Americans. Furthermore, Sanders was urged by MacArthur to "keep quiet" about any human experiments.[4]

Following the acquittal, Sanders invited Ishii to Fort Detrick to lecture officers on the findings made by Unit 731.[10] He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his efforts in "the development, perfection and standardization of laboratory methods for detection and evaluation of actual potential biological warfare agents".[4]

Sanders has been harshly criticized for his proposal to grant amnesty to Unit 731's members in spite of the atrocities they committed. He later testified before U.S. Congress regarding the failure of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal to prosecute many Japanese war criminals. Sanders defended his decision in press interviews, stating that he had been "duped" and outsmarted by Ishii and his subordinates.[11] He consistently denied having had any knowledge on the details of Unit 731's human experiments at the time, stating that he would have been "very happy to be part of the firing squad" had he known.[12] Historian Sheldon Harris has also defended Sanders, calling him "ambitious but naïve", and claiming that he had "missed the trail leading to Ishii and others".[13]

Civilian career

While in Japan, Sanders contracted a serious case of tuberculosis, and was transferred back to Fort Detrick. He was discharged from the army in 1949 following his recovery and became Chairman of the Department of Medical Research at the University of Miami, a position which he held until 1958.[14] He was among the founders of Miami's Variety Children's Hospital, and also served as the chairman of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University.[15][3] He was a recipient of the Dade County Outstanding Citizenship Award for his efforts in the development of aureomycin.[16]

Adenoviral Keratoconjunctivitis, formerly known as Sanders' Disease

During his time working at the University of Miami, Sanders proposed a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using what he called a "Modified Neurotoxin" (MNT) derived from the zootoxins in snake venom. Although Sanders was nominated in 1966 for a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his efforts,[4][17] his treatment would later be criticized as ineffective by a number of physicians; a 1980 study by doctors Victor Rivera, Martin Grabois, and William Deaton found that Sanders's treatment had a "lack of clinical effectiveness" and "did not demonstrate any benefit from administration of modified snake venom to patients with ALS".[18] Sanders opened the Sanders Medical Research Foundation (SMRF) in Boca Raton, Florida in 1973,[19] in which he treated patients with ALS until his retirement from medical research in 1983. Sanders would also administer MNT treatment on test subjects in Havana as a possible remedy for polio.[20]

Sanders was one of the first scientists to identify and experiment with adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis, a viral infection of the eye.[21] He used himself as a test subject for experimenting with the virus, resulting in a gradual loss of sight in his right eye.[4] As a result, the condition became informally known as Sanders' disease;[22] however, this terminology is no longer used by ophthalmologists.

Sanders suffered from Parkinson's disease towards the end of his life.[4] He died on June 29, 1987, at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, at the age of 77. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b The biology of doom: the history of America's secret germ warfare project. 2000-05-01.
  2. ^ "Expert Lectures to Biology Frat On Polio Virus Research Work". The Miami Hurricane. March 25, 1949. p. 7.
  3. ^ a b c "Murray Sanders Obituary". Boca Raton News. July 7, 1987. p. 8.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Williams, Peter; Wallace, David (1989). Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-935301-1.
  5. ^ "{BLR 1395} PTO - Patents - CD-ROM". Biotechnology Law Report. 11 (6): 684–768. November 1992. doi:10.1089/blr.1992.11.684. ISSN 0730-031X.
  6. ^ Gold, Hal. Unit 731: Testimony. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804835659.
  7. ^ Shahid, Sohaib (2006-07-01). "Book Review Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY". The Lahore Journal of Economics. 11 (2): 189–191. doi:10.35536/lje.2006.v11.i2.a11. ISSN 1811-5446.
  8. ^ "Lieutenant Colonel Ryoichi Naito". Unit 731: Perpetrator of the Asian Holocaust. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
  9. ^ jfwknifton. "Dr Murray Sanders". John Knifton. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  10. ^ Kaye, Jeffrey (2021-10-16). "Key DoD Official Who Argued for Unit 731 Amnesty Figures at Inception of U.S." Medium. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
  11. ^ "HHE determination report no. HHE-78-35-568, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., New York, New York". 1979-03-01. doi:10.26616/nioshhhe7835568. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ "MacArthur Aide Charges Hirohito Knew of Germ Warfare Tests on U.S. POWs". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  13. ^ "Fouraker on Harris, 'Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-up' | H-Japan | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  14. ^ "Dr. Murray Sanders papers - Archival Collections". atom.library.miami.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  15. ^ "Group Will Discuss Virology". Boca Raton News. November 26, 1964. p. 21.
  16. ^ Branning, Don (May 29, 1950). "Outstanding Citizens Honored; Betty Ward, Dr. Sanders Get Awards". The Miami News. p. 17.
  17. ^ Home, R. W.; Low, Morris F. (1993). "Postwar Scientific Intelligence Missions to Japan". Isis. 84 (3): 527–537. doi:10.1086/356550. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 235645. S2CID 144114888.
  18. ^ Rivera, Victor M.; Grabois, Martin; Deaton, William; Breitbach, Wini; Hines, Marc (1980-04-01). "Modified Snake Venom in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Lack of Clinical Effectiveness". Archives of Neurology. 37 (4): 201–203. doi:10.1001/archneur.1980.00500530039003. ISSN 0003-9942. PMID 7362484.
  19. ^ "THE SANDERS MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC. :: Florida (US) :: OpenCorporates". opencorporates.com. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  20. ^ Beldarraín, Enrique (April 2013). "Poliomyelitis and its elimination in Cuba: an historical overview". MEDICC Review. 15 (2): 30–36. doi:10.37757/MR2013V15.N2.7. ISSN 1527-3172. PMID 23686253.
  21. ^ rupress.org https://rupress.org/jem/article/77/1/71/4667/EPIDEMIC-KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS-I-ISOLATION-AND. Retrieved 2022-09-22. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ "Sanders disease". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
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