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 Emper ...

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

, 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., w ...

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) *** 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 es ...

(

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

) 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 t ...

and performed human experimentation. * Unit Ei 1644 or Tama Unit (

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

) was under control of the Japanese Central China Area Army and performed human experimentation. ** 12 different sub-Units (Unknown names) (Unknown locations) *

Unit 8604 Unit 8604 (), also known as Detachment 8604, Detachment Nami or Detachment Nami 8604, was the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department unit of the Japanese Southern China Area Army. It secretly researched biological warfare and other ...

or Nami Unit (

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

) was under control of the

Japanese Southern China Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese South China Area Army was formed on February 9, 1940 under the control of the China Expeditionary Army. It was transferred to direct contr ...

and performed human experimentation. *

Unit 9420 Unit Oka 9420 was the central Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group of the Imperial Japanese Army. Formed in 1942 to support the Japanese Southern Army, Unit 9420 consisted of two units; ...

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, bor ...

), under control of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group 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 h ...

was operated by the Kempeitai, 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 Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese ...

, 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 ...

. ** Unit (Unknown name) ( Dairen) **

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 al ...

(

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 onl ...

) *

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 of

.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