The Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department was a department of the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
from 1936 to the dissolution of the Army in 1945. While its public mission was to prevent the spread of disease and monitor water supply, several field armies also assigned units the mission of manufacturing
biological weapons
A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...
. Many units also performed
unethical human experimentation
Unethical human experimentation is human experimentation that violates the principles of medical ethics. Such practices have included denying patients the right to informed consent, using pseudoscientific frameworks such as race science, and tortu ...
, such as
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
, in which thousands of prisoners of war and civilians were tortured to death over the course of years.
Organization
The department was organized under the following system:
* Unit 691 was under control of the
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = April ...
.
** The central office of Unit 691 was
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
, infamous for its secret commitment to
chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...
and biological weapons and performing human experimentation. It had several branches, all of which were involved with biological warfare research:
***
Unit 162 (
Linkou)
***
Unit 643 (
Hailin
Hailin () is a county-level city, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Mudanjiang, in the southeast of Heilongjiang province, China, bordering Jilin province to the southwest. It has an area of , and a population of 422,000 (as ...
)
***
Unit 673 (
Sunwu
Sunwu County () is a county under the administration of Heihe City in the north of Heilongjiang province, China, situated on the bank of Amur River, which demarcates the Sino-Russian border. The length of border line within Sunwu county is .
Sunw ...
)
***
Unit 319 was another sub-unit, which apparently were principally devoted to water purification.
*
Unit 1855
Unit 1855 was a unit for human experimentation that belonged to the central Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the North China Army of the Imperial Japanese Army, stationed in Beijing between 1938 and 1945.
Unit 1855 was esta ...
(
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
) was under control of the
Japanese Northern China Area Army
The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
History
The Japanese North China Area Army was formed on August 21, 1937 under the control of the Imperial General Headquarters. It was transferred to th ...
and performed human experimentation.
*
Unit Ei 1644 Unit Ei 1644 ( ja, 栄1644部隊) — also known as Unit 1644, Detachment Ei 1644, Detachment Ei, Detachment Tama, The Nanking Detachment, or simply Unit Ei, was a Japanese laboratory and biological warfare facility under control of the Epidemic Pre ...
or Tama Unit (
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
) was under control of the
Japanese Central China Area Army
The was an area army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
History
On November 7, 1937 Japanese Central China Area Army (CCAA) was organized as a reinforcement expeditionary army by combining the Shanghai Expedit ...
and performed human experimentation.
** 12 different sub-Units (Unknown names) (Unknown locations)
*
Unit 8604 or Nami Unit (
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
) was under control of the
Japanese Southern China Area Army
Field armies of Japan, S
Military units and formations established in 1940
Military units and formations disestablished in 1941 ...
and performed human experimentation.
*
Unit 9420 or Oka Unit (
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
), under control of the
Southern Expeditionary Army Group
''Nanpō gun''
, image = 1938 terauchi hisaichi.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = Japanese General Count Terauchi Hisaichi, right, commanding officer of the Southern Expedition ...
and probably performed human experimentation.
*
Unit 100
was an Imperial Japanese Army facility called the Kwantung Army Warhorse Disease Prevention Shop that focused on the development of biological weapons during World War II. It was operated by the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police. Its hea ...
was operated by the
Kempeitai
The , also known as Kempeitai, was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945 that also served as a secret police force. In addition, in Japanese-occupied territories, the Kenpeitai arrested or killed those suspecte ...
, the Japanese
military police
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...
. It was located in
Mokotan,
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...
, a village just south of the city of
Changchun
Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 c ...
.
** Unit (Unknown name) (
Dairen
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
)
**
Unit 543
Unit 543 was a secret Imperial Japanese Army facility at Hailar that focused on the development of biological weapons during World War II. It was operated by the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police. Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003
See als ...
(
Hailar
Hailar District, formerly a county-level city, is an urban district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administrative terms only ...
)
*
Unit 516
Unit 516 (第五一六部隊) was a top secret Japanese chemical weapons facility, operated by the Kempeitai, in Qiqihar, Japanese-occupied northeast China. The name Unit 516 was a code name ( Tsūshōgō) of the Unit. It was officially called the ...
(
Qiqihar
Qiqihar () is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, while the total populat ...
)
**
Unit 525
**
Unit 526
*
Unit 160, possibly a typo (referring to unit 100).
The 1996 book ''Germ Warfare Units'' (細菌戦部隊) contains testimonies that all of these units engaged in biological weapon development.
Equipment
Each office was equipped with water purification facilities and trucks to transport water to where it was needed. The water filtration equipment was designed by
Shirō Ishii
Surgeon General was a Japanese microbiologist and army medical officer who served as the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Ishii led the development and application of biological weapons at Unit 73 ...
of
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
.
[関亮 『軍医サンよもやま物語―軍医診療アラカルト』 光人社〈光人社NF文庫〉、1997年。]
References
{{IJA special research units
Imperial Japanese Army
Japanese biological weapons program
1936 establishments in Japan