Japanese army uses own soldiers in mosquito-borne disease experiments during WWII: study

HARBIN, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Japanese troops conducted live human experiments involving mosquito-borne diseases on their own soldiers during World War II (WWII), according to new research released Thursday.

The study was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. It shows that during WWII, Japanese forces in China conducted insect-based bacteriological weapons research using mosquitoes, fleas and flies through two major biological warfare units -- Unit 731 in Harbin and Unit 1855 in Beijing -- along with military medical institutions in Japan proper.

According to the study, Japanese biological warfare units conducted detailed research on disease-carrying insects, using fleas to transmit plague, flies to spread cholera, and mosquitoes as the primary vector for malaria. Both Unit 731 and Unit 1855 established dedicated insect sections to breed these vectors as part of their bacteriological weapons development.

Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Exhibition Hall, said a paper documenting live human experiments using malaria-infected mosquitoes, conducted from May to August 1940, was published in a journal by the Japanese Army Medical Corps on Jan. 10, 1943.

At a military hospital in Japan's Chiba Prefecture, Japanese military personnel first had mosquitoes feed on soldiers who had contracted malaria in China, then allowed the infected insects to bite 10 Japanese soldiers hospitalized with mental illnesses. Multiple test subjects subsequently developed symptoms including fevers exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, headaches and loss of appetite.

"This case exposes the criminal nature of the Japanese forces' practice of treating human beings as mere 'experimental material,'" Jin said. "It also confirms that their experiments extended to the Japanese mainland, with even their own soldiers not spared."

The records further reveal that Japanese forces conducted cross-institutional collaboration in bacteriological weapons research, according to the study.