Based on limited research, I could not find any articles on Japan using biological weapons against the Soviet Union. I did find articles on the Unit 731 work in China and plans to attack the USA. So I am assuming that Japan did not do biological warfare against the Soviets when they invaded Manchuria. If I am wrong, please let me know where I can find this information.
I am wondering what would happen if the Japanese Army seeing evidence of the Soviet build up around Manchuria decided that the only way to defeat the Soviets was to hit them with everything in their biological weapon arsenal. Also they did a better job of predicting the lines of advance for the Soviet armies. Besides what they did in China and wanted to do to the USA, what if they had stay behind units that would do biological warfare behind the Soviet lines. ie infecting the water and food supplies that the Soviet troops were using, using mortars to send biological weapons into Soviet camps and lines of march, and so on. Considering how fanatical the Japanese were, what if they infected women with cholera or the plague and let them be quickly captured by the Soviets. Assuming that the Soviets soldiers keep the women as sex slaves, the women could spread their disease to the Soviet troops.
I know that using infected women as a weapon is pretty extreme and perverted, but it was my understanding that Japanese school children were being trained to attached the American soldiers with spears. So I am assuming that the Japanese Army faced with overwhelming force would take any measures to defeat the Soviet army.
So what would happen to the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation if the Japanese did this? What would the long term consequence of doing this be to Japan?
"Germ warfare attacks[edit]
Prisoners were injected with diseases, disguised as vaccinations,[24] to study their effects. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea, then studied. Prisoners were also repeatedly subject to rape by guards.[25]
Plague fleas, infected clothing and infected supplies encased in bombs were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed around and possibly more than 400,000 Chinese civilians.[26] Tularemia was tested on Chinese civilians.[27]
Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in assaults against the Chinese populace (both civilian and military) throughout World War II. Plague-infected fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, including coastal Ningbo in 1940, and Changde, Hunan Province, in 1941. This military aerial spraying killed thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics.[28]
It is possible that Unit 731's methods and objectives were also followed in Indonesia, in a case of a failed experiment designed to validate a synthesized tetanus toxoid vaccine.[29]
Biological warfare[edit]
Japanese researchers performed tests on prisoners with bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, and other diseases.[36] This research led to the development of the defoliation bacilli bomb and the flea bomb used to spread bubonic plague.[37] Some of these bombs were designed with porcelain shells, an idea proposed by Ishii in 1938.
These bombs enabled Japanese soldiers to launch biological attacks, infecting agriculture, reservoirs, wells, and other areas with anthrax, plague-carrier fleas, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and other deadly pathogens. During biological bomb experiments, researchers dressed in protective suits would examine the dying victims. Infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by airplane into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. In addition, poisoned food and candies were given to unsuspecting victims, and the results examined.
In 2002, Changde, China, site of the flea spraying attack, held an "International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare" which estimated that at least 580,000 people died as a result of the attack.[38] The historian Sheldon Harris claims that 200,000 died.[39] In addition to Chinese casualties, 1,700 Japanese in Chekiang were killed by their own biological weapons while attempting to unleash the biological agent, indicating serious issues with distribution.[1]
During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.[40][41][42][43]"
I am wondering what would happen if the Japanese Army seeing evidence of the Soviet build up around Manchuria decided that the only way to defeat the Soviets was to hit them with everything in their biological weapon arsenal. Also they did a better job of predicting the lines of advance for the Soviet armies. Besides what they did in China and wanted to do to the USA, what if they had stay behind units that would do biological warfare behind the Soviet lines. ie infecting the water and food supplies that the Soviet troops were using, using mortars to send biological weapons into Soviet camps and lines of march, and so on. Considering how fanatical the Japanese were, what if they infected women with cholera or the plague and let them be quickly captured by the Soviets. Assuming that the Soviets soldiers keep the women as sex slaves, the women could spread their disease to the Soviet troops.
I know that using infected women as a weapon is pretty extreme and perverted, but it was my understanding that Japanese school children were being trained to attached the American soldiers with spears. So I am assuming that the Japanese Army faced with overwhelming force would take any measures to defeat the Soviet army.
So what would happen to the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation if the Japanese did this? What would the long term consequence of doing this be to Japan?
"Germ warfare attacks[edit]
Prisoners were injected with diseases, disguised as vaccinations,[24] to study their effects. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea, then studied. Prisoners were also repeatedly subject to rape by guards.[25]
Plague fleas, infected clothing and infected supplies encased in bombs were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed around and possibly more than 400,000 Chinese civilians.[26] Tularemia was tested on Chinese civilians.[27]
Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in assaults against the Chinese populace (both civilian and military) throughout World War II. Plague-infected fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, including coastal Ningbo in 1940, and Changde, Hunan Province, in 1941. This military aerial spraying killed thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics.[28]
It is possible that Unit 731's methods and objectives were also followed in Indonesia, in a case of a failed experiment designed to validate a synthesized tetanus toxoid vaccine.[29]
Biological warfare[edit]
Japanese researchers performed tests on prisoners with bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, and other diseases.[36] This research led to the development of the defoliation bacilli bomb and the flea bomb used to spread bubonic plague.[37] Some of these bombs were designed with porcelain shells, an idea proposed by Ishii in 1938.
These bombs enabled Japanese soldiers to launch biological attacks, infecting agriculture, reservoirs, wells, and other areas with anthrax, plague-carrier fleas, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and other deadly pathogens. During biological bomb experiments, researchers dressed in protective suits would examine the dying victims. Infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by airplane into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. In addition, poisoned food and candies were given to unsuspecting victims, and the results examined.
In 2002, Changde, China, site of the flea spraying attack, held an "International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare" which estimated that at least 580,000 people died as a result of the attack.[38] The historian Sheldon Harris claims that 200,000 died.[39] In addition to Chinese casualties, 1,700 Japanese in Chekiang were killed by their own biological weapons while attempting to unleash the biological agent, indicating serious issues with distribution.[1]
During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.[40][41][42][43]"
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