Kaimingye germ weapon attack
Encyclopedia
The Kaimingjie germ weapon attack was a Japan
ese biological warfare
bacterial germ strike against Kaimingjie, an area of the port of Ningbo
in the Chinese
province of Zhejiang
in October 1940, during the Second Sino-Japanese War
.
These attacks were a joint Unit 731
and Unit 1644 endeavour. Bubonic plague
was the area of greatest interest to the doctors of the units mentioned above. Six different plague attacks were conducted in China
during the war, between the start of aggression and the end of the war.
Using airdropped wheat, corn, scraps of cotton cloth and sand infested with plague infected fleas, an outbreak was started that resulted in a hundred deaths. The area was evacuated and a 14 foot wall was built around it to enforce a quarantine. The area was eventually burnt to the ground to eradicate the disease.
A later attack in 1942 on the same area by the two units led to the development of their final delivery system: airdropped ceramic
bombs. Some work was conducted during the war with the use of liquid
forms of the pathogen
agents but the results were unsatisfactory for the researchers.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese biological warfare
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
bacterial germ strike against Kaimingjie, an area of the port of Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
in the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
province of Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
in October 1940, during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
.
These attacks were a joint Unit 731
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...
and Unit 1644 endeavour. Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
was the area of greatest interest to the doctors of the units mentioned above. Six different plague attacks were conducted in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
during the war, between the start of aggression and the end of the war.
Using airdropped wheat, corn, scraps of cotton cloth and sand infested with plague infected fleas, an outbreak was started that resulted in a hundred deaths. The area was evacuated and a 14 foot wall was built around it to enforce a quarantine. The area was eventually burnt to the ground to eradicate the disease.
A later attack in 1942 on the same area by the two units led to the development of their final delivery system: airdropped ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
bombs. Some work was conducted during the war with the use of liquid
Liquid
Liquid is one of the three classical states of matter . Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container. Some liquids resist compression, while others can be compressed. Unlike a gas, a liquid does not disperse to fill every space of a container, and maintains a fairly...
forms of the pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
agents but the results were unsatisfactory for the researchers.