Irene Frederic needs to get information quickly from double agent Sally Stukowski in third season episode The 40th Floor, and isn't above using a bit of torture to do it. This medal, taken from the coat of Shirō Ishii, simulates drowning when touched to the bare skin of a victim, and can do in seconds what it would take a skilled interrogator days to achieve.
Shirō Ishii was a Japanese Army medical officer and director of Unit 731, a secret bioweapons research facility directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Chinese civilians before and during WW II due to plague, anthrax, cholera, and other weaponized infectious agents. Ishii's unit also conducted considerable human experimentation, including vivisections, forced abortions, simulated strokes and more; real nice guys and heroes, one and all. Of course, after the war the US magically wiped all their misdeeds away, in order to get at the data obtained from their unethical experiments; Ishii was never prosecuted for his crimes against humanity and died of throat cancer at age 67. Of note: Ishii converted to Catholicism on his death bed; a particularly cowardly way to try to avoid any final punishment for all the evil he had done.
Ornate medal made of cast metal, with a tri-fold felt-lined wooden presentation case also seen onscreen.
From VIP Fan Auctions & NBCUniversal.
