Science of Conflict

Biological warfare

During the Sino-Japanese War Japanese soldiers assigned to Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration one night infected 3,000 bread rolls with typhoid, previously grown in a laboratory. The next morning these bread rolls were fed to Chinese POWs. Within days many were writhing in agony slowly dyeing from the disease. Japanese scientists moved amongst the dyeing meticulously recording details.
These scientists were involved in a secret biological weapons program.

Japanese occupation was often very brutal with many Chinese civilians suffering at the hands of the Japanese.

In charge of this top secret biological weapons program was Dr Ishii Shiro, Japan's most prominent bacteriologist. In 1932, when Japan invaded Manchuria, Shiro performed many horrible experiments on the population in an effort to perfect an efficient weapon of mass destruction. By 1940, Shiro had developed the world's first biological weapon of mass destruction.

His weapon of mass destruction was used against a Chinese village with 4,000 people. It consisted of bombs packed with bubonic-plague infected fleas. The entire village was wiped out. An attempt to counter the U.S. forces invading Okinawa with a similar weapon failed when the ship carrying the pathogens was sunk by a U.S. submarine.

A plan to drop pathogens on Los Angeles by seaplanes launched from a giant submarine was shelved by the Japanese General Staff. Shiro argued that this attack was justified since the U.S. forces were using napalm to incinerate Japanese soldiers dug in their trenches and deep fortifications.

Biological warfare is not a recent phenomenon. Plague has a long history as a biological weapon. Historical accounts from medieval Europe detail the use of infected animal carcasses, such as cows or horses, and human carcasses, by Mongols, Turks and other groups, to contaminate enemy water supplies. Plague victims were also reported to have been tossed by catapult into enemy castles under siege.

 

Bubonic plague becomes evident three to seven days after the infection. Initial symptoms are chills, fever, diarrhea, headaches, and the swelling of the infected lymph nodes, as the bacteria replicate there. If left untreated there is a 75% mortality rate. The effects of the bubonic plague are evident on the right.

 

Research the symptoms, mode of infection and cure for the following biological warfare agents.

Bubonic plague
Anthrax

How was biological warfare conducted in the Medieval times?

Were any viral agents used as biological weapons?

Explain how a virus works?

Continue with the Bubonic Plague
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