During WWII, over 70 million people died, with more than half being civilians. In 1940, Japanese planes dropped fleas carrying bubonic plague over Ningbo, China, killing at least 109 citizens due to the work of Unit 731. Biological warfare dates back to antiquity, including the use of dead animals to contaminate water supplies and the spread of smallpox to Native Americans. In 2001, anthrax letters were sent to US senators and media outlets, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
The fact that some 70 million people died during WWII will probably never lose its shock value, but what remains equally disturbing is that more than half of those deaths were civilians.
A particularly frightening attack took place in the fall of 1940, when Japanese planes dropped fleas carrying the bubonic plague over the Chinese city of Ningbo. According to bacteriologist Huang Ketai, at least 109 citizens have died from the disease, which carried “artificially heightened toxicity” due to the work of Unit 731, a notorious laboratory that conducted experiments aimed at boosting Japan’s war machine.
The strain of the disease was so powerful that the hospitals and other buildings that had been affected by it burned to the ground and the area lay unused for decades.
“This was a particularly virulent form of the plague that could only have been artificially created by Unit 731,” Huang told a court in 2001. Huang was testifying in a trial for alleged victims of Unit 731’s activities, who had been so veiled in secrecy that its very existence was denied by Japan for decades.
The basics of biological warfare:
Evidence of attempts to sicken or kill enemies with biological weapons dates back to antiquity, including the use of dead animals to contaminate water supplies as far back as 300 BC.
In the French and Indian War, British Army officers discussed the spread of smallpox to Native Americans by giving them blankets that had been used by victims of the disease.
One week after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, letters containing anthrax were sent to two US senators and several media outlets; five people were killed and 17 others infected.
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