Unit 8604 (), also known as Detachment 8604, Detachment Nami or Detachment Nami 8604, was the

Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department The Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department was a department of the Imperial Japanese Army 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, sever ...

unit 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 ...

. It secretly researched

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. ...

and other topics through human experimentation during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

(1937–1945) and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

era. It was formed in

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 ...

in 1939, and headquartered at

Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences The former Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences (SUMS; ) was located in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. - The address traces to "74 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China" It is government ...

. The unit was commanded by Major General

Sato Shunji was a Japanese physician during the first half of the 20th century, a major general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and a war criminal. Biography Satō was a native of the city of Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture. From January 1941 he was a depa ...

, a physician. It was staffed by a total of 800 personnel: 100 commissioned officers (many with medical or scientific backgrounds), 200 medical and scientific researchers, and 500 soldiers and noncommissioned officers. In 1994, an international research team confirmed the existence of the unit and collected testimony from former members and victims. Shigeru Maruyama, a former member of the unit said that one experiment involved starving prisoners to death and talked of seeing victims being operated on almost every day.http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/1994/11/06/new-evidence-claimed-of-japan-biological-warfare/

References

Biological warfare facilities Imperial Japanese Army Japanese human subject research Second Sino-Japanese War Second Sino-Japanese War crimes Japanese biological weapons program Japanese war crimes {{Japan-mil-hist-stub

See also

References