Forgotten Biological War on the Korean Peninsula – Technical Details

Abstract

The use of biological weapons (BW) by the American army during the war on the Korean Peninsula (25.06.1950–27.07.1953) is an almost forgotten episode in the military history of the twentieth century. After the appearance of the first reports about the outbreak of biological warfare, the World Peace Council, at the initiative of the PRC, appointed the special International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China (hereinafter – the Commission), which in 1952 prepared the «Report of the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China», (hereinafter – Report). The report has been repeatedly criticized for being prepared by the communists. However, the analysis of this document revealed that there remained a large amount of information that has never been criticized and remained unrefuted by anyone to date. This information is the main subject of our analysis. The purpose of this work is to show how biological warfare has been conducted during the hostilities on the Korean Peninsula in 1952. During the war, the Americans studied the effectiveness of various types of biological munitions: improved Japanese munitions (spreading infected insects and animals), special aerial bombs designed to spray liquid bacterial formulations. Combat aircraft equipped with aerosol generators were used for the first time to spray dry formulations. Water sources have been intentionally infected with pathogens of dangerous diseases. Outbreaks of plague, anthrax, cholera, dysentery and probably other infections have been caused artificially among the Korean and Chinese population. In the United States, many ideas about BW, based on the analysis of the Japanese experience and on their own field experiments in the 1940s, have been revised after the Korean War. The creation of the ammunition for the dissemination of fine aerosols and blood-sucking insects became the main direction of the development of the American BW. The report itself is the first attempt to create a new section of epidemiology – «abnormal epidemiology», i.e. the systems of scientific knowledge that allows the experts to recognize the artificial outbreaks (epidemics) of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, after the war the report was not properly evaluated. It was forgotten for political reasons. Therefore, the work on the creation of this section of epidemiology should be continued on the basis of new knowledge about contemporary biological threats.