Chapter 25 Chapter 24 The Bacterial Warfare of the Japanese Invading Army in Ningbo (1940.10)

The area around the corner of Zhongshan East Road and Kaiming Street in downtown Ningbo is full of shops and busy traffic, creating a bustling scene.But more than 40 years ago, this place was a ruin known as the "plague field".Ningbo citizens who came from the old society will never forget that it was the bacteriological warfare carried out by the evil Japanese imperialism that caused Ningbo people to suffer a unique plague disaster! Since the July 7th Incident in 1937, Japanese planes have frequently attacked Ningbo.For example, within five days from April 28 to May 2, 1939, Japanese planes bombed the urban area of ​​Ningbo nine times in a row, killing and injuring 400 to 500 residents, causing Ningbo to suffer unprecedented catastrophe.Then, the Japanese army used inhumane means to drop bacterial weapons in the urban area of ​​Ningbo, causing a catastrophic plague.

On the morning of October 22, 1940, a Japanese plane invaded the sky over Ningbo City from the northeast and circled away.Someone was very surprised to hear the rustling sound on the roof tiles when the enemy plane passed by.Then, residents of shops in East Zhongshan Road, Donghou Street, and Kaiming Street found that there were grains of wheat, flour, and corn scattered on the roof tiles and in the patio, and there were more at the corners. Some people also found ridiculous content. Leaflets and little red fleas.A few days later, on October 30, the son of a peddler named Mei You who lived on Kaiming Street died suddenly, and the husband and wife of the bean juice shop at No. 66 Kaiming Street also died of sudden illness. A clerk also fell ill and died.People who went to the nearby shops also fell ill one after another, showing symptoms such as high fever, headache, swollen and painful lymph glands, and sometimes confusion. They sought treatment from Yin County Central Hospital and Huamei Hospital respectively.

On November 1, Dr. Ding Licheng, the president of Huamei Hospital, checked the patient Yu Yuande. The result: "The body temperature is 39.3 degrees, the pulse is 120 beats, there is no abnormality in the heart and lungs, the abdomen is palpable and swollen with tenderness, the groins are swollen and painful on both sides, and the white blood cells are 18,000." , can not find the parasite, it can be determined that it is not vicious malaria.On the same day, Sun Jinzuan, a physician from the Yin County Health Center, went to the Central Hospital for consultation, and the staff of the hospital also visited the patient's home. After their preliminary diagnosis, they thought it might be plague. On November 2, Dr. Ding Licheng of Huamei Hospital conducted an animal experiment and injected the blood and lymphatic puncture fluid of patient Yu Yuande into the peritoneum of Dutch mice. plague.Immediately, the Yin County authorities telegraphed the Provincial Health Department, requesting assistance in exterminating the disease, and sending the blood film to the province for re-examination.

On November 4, Ningbo's "Current Affairs Bulletin" reported: "The epidemic spreading around Donghou Street and Kaiming Street in the Central District of Benbu City was discovered on the 30th of last month, and it has been 6 days since then. The results of medical examinations by health centers and various public and private hospitals have confirmed that it is plague." "Since the epidemic became popular, there have been 36 patients, 16 people have died, and 20 people have not recovered." As the epidemic spread, people panicked. The local government was at a loss and hurriedly invited the medical community to discuss prevention and control measures. On the evening of November 2, the epidemic area began to be sealed off, ranging from No. 124 Zhongshan East Road, through Kaiming Street, to No. 143 Donghou Street and a part of Taiping Lane, with a total of 115 households and 253 people.

But the epidemic continued to develop, and the death toll surged.According to the investigation and statistics of Zhang Fangqing, the leader of the prevention and control team of the epidemic prevention department and the director of the Central Hospital at that time, from October 30 to November 10, among 30 households and 173 people in the epidemic area, 80 people were sick, and 74 of them died. The rate reached 92.5%.Among them, 9 families died. For example, all 5 members of the family of Ziquan Douzhi Store at No. 66 Kaiming Street died, and all 6 members of Wang Chenglin's family at No. 136 Donghou Street died.The one with the highest number of deaths was Baochangyang Suit Store at No. 260 East Zhongshan Road, where 15 people were sick and 14 died. At Yuantai Hotel, No. 266 Zhongshan East Road, 6 people were sick and 5 died.

By the end of November, almost all the patients who lived at the intersection of Donghou Street and Kaiming Street had died. A total of 97 people died in the isolation ward, and a total of 117 patients died in other places.The bodies of the deceased were transported to Laolongwan in the southwestern suburbs for deep burial. The scene was very miserable.A survivor who was killed and saved in this tragedy, Qian Guifa, an apprentice of Yuantai Hotel, traced the tragedy at that time and said: "I rolled from the bed to the ground in the isolation hospital, from the ground to the bed, and rolled again. When I came out, I saw with my own eyes that my familiar friends opened their mouths, stared, and died with their heads bent.” "The owner of the Shanghai Bookstore jumped up from the bed and crawled on the floor, as if his fingers were about to scratch the floor. From time to time, someone shouted that one person died, another person died. Some were put into coffins before they passed away, and were quarantined. There was a lot of crying in the hospital, and our family members went to the hospital to moan and wail, and the screams were unbearable!"

On the evening of November 30, 1940, in order to completely eradicate the plague, the local government of the Kuomintang burned down 137 houses and shops in the affected area.The family members of the victims saw their loved ones poisoned to death by the enemy and their property burnt to the ground, feeling distraught.But afterwards, the Chongqing Kuomintang government not only did not seek justice for the families of the victims, but sent an investigation team with Austrian spies as advisors to defend the crimes committed by the enemy.At that time, the 500,000 relief fund donated by all walks of life in Ningbo was embezzled by the authorities and ignored by the victims.

Who caused the plague disaster in Ningbo?Where did the source of the epidemic come from?At that time, Chen Wanli, director of the Health Department of Zhejiang Province, and other five people reported to the Chongqing Kuomintang government that the plague found in Ningbo and Quzhou was directly caused by enemy planes dropping cotton, wheat, etc. mixed with fleas. On December 6, 1940, the KMT’s third war zone sent a letter to the Chongqing Executive Yuan, stating: “The enemy planes that have recently been found to have spread poison in Zhejiang Province have been confirmed to be Yersinia pestis by the inspection of the Provincial Health Department.”The Zhejiang Provincial Government reported on December 10: According to a letter from Chen Wanli and others, the plague occurred in Yin County on October 29, "due to the fact that an enemy plane threw about two liters of wheat over the affected area a week before the onset."In the same year, Li Jishen sent a telegram to Yu stating: According to a telegram from Liu Jingbang on December 11, the plague was found in the Western Sinking of Ningbo and the Garrison Branch of Quxian County.

At the beginning of 1944, Sun Xushang, director of the Health Department of Zhejiang Province, wrote an article: "As for the 'cause' of the outbreak of the plague in the two counties of Yinqu in 1940, many people believed that it was because enemy planes flew over the two counties at that time and spread it down. Many things like wheat and fleas', this is 'a question of the enemy's germ warfare. This is a new event that has never existed before in the history of plague'." In February 1950, the complaints of the family members of the victims of the Japanese bacterial warfare in Ningbo and the accounts of eyewitnesses provided more convincing evidence.Qian Guifa, a Canadian survivor, said: “On October 22, 1940, a Japanese monoplane flew from a very low place in the northeast and dropped a lot of wheat, wheat flour and chestnuts on Kaiming Street and Donghou Street. There are leaflets depicting the national flags of Japan, Germany, and Italy and shaking hands, expressing "China-Japan Friendship". The leaflets generally say that Chongqing is suffering from famine, and the people are struggling to survive, while the Japanese people are well-fed and have surplus food to help you. The Japanese invaders attempted to use The words on the leaflets deceived us, and the next day it rained heavily, and the wheat flour that fell on the roof was washed down to the ground. On the 30th, the neighbor’s tofu shop owner Lai Fusheng and his wife both died of illness.” “In a few days I also I was sent to an isolation hospital, and all the patients with me died one after another," "Only I escaped from death."

Another survivor, Zhang Xincai of the Baochangxiang suit store, Lin Yunjin and Wu Renquan, the family members of the victims, said: "At that time, the owner of Jiuhexiang Cigarette Paper Store, Lu Guisheng, the owner of Shenglichang, and the owner of Baochangxiang Department Store A fellow once saw with his own eyes that there were small jumping things in the wheat sowed by the Japanese machine, and he saw that a few days after the wheat was sown, patients suffering from the plague were found in the area where the wheat was planted.”Zhong Hui, who worked in the Ningbo Plague Epidemic Prevention Department, said: "When the plague broke out, the patients in the isolation ward told me that when the plane flew in that day, they saw many wheat and millet falling together, and there were many beatings. Later, when I came out after working in the infected area wearing a white flea jacket and tarpaulin boots, there were many red fleas that were smaller than usual crawling on my lower body. Households that shed the most wheat had the most dead people ".

Dr. Ding Licheng, who participated in the treatment work at that time and had been practicing medicine in Ningbo for 32 years, said: "From the statistical data on the epidemic situation of infectious diseases in Ningbo I kept, there was no plague patient in Ningbo before 1940. After the wheat was sown near Yongyao Power Company in Kaiming Street, the plague broke out in the area. A total of 99 people were infected, and only 2 of them were cured. A special person came to our hospital to check whether there were any patients with infectious diseases. In May of the same year, a patient surnamed Wang sought treatment in Xibei Village on Xibei Street. At that time, blood was drawn for animal inoculation. The military doctor of Kou’s army cut off a piece of the spleen of the dead guinea pig.”This shows that the Japanese aggressors had long been prepared to investigate the effect of distributing the rat vaccine after occupying Ningbo. In December 1949, the Khabarovsk Military Tribunal of the Soviet Union tried the criminals of the Japanese army’s bacterial warfare unit in China (namely the “Unit 731” initiated and commanded by Shiro Ishii).Germ war criminals have confessed to their crimes. On the evening of December 25, Kawashima, the Minister of General Affairs and Production Minister of Unit 731, was interrogated.Defendant Kawashima confessed: “Lieutenant General Ishii once showed me a Chinese medical journal, which described the causes of the plague epidemic in Ningbo in 1940. After he showed me the magazine, he said to me, The expedition sent by Unit 731 scattered plague fleas from planes in the Ningbo area, and as a result, plague epidemics were caused there.” On December 26, Qi Ze, the former head of the fourth production team of the Japanese Army Unit 731, was interrogated.Defendant Qi Ze confessed: "The first expedition was held in 1940. It was in the second half of the year. My immediate supervisor, Major Suzuki, the head of the production division, ordered us to manufacture 70 kg of typhoid bacteria and 50 kg of cholera bacteria. I know from Major Suzuki that these bacteria were produced for the special expedition led by General Ishii to the interior of China.... At the same time, I also know that the expedition took 5 kilograms of plague fleas with it. I remember , The expedition led by General Ishii went to the Hankou area in central China, where the plague fleas and various bacteria were actually used as weapons." Major Nozaki led a special team, and as a result, Major Nozaki obtained several newspapers that recorded news about the epidemic in Ningbo." "I remember, it was written in this newspaper that before the plague broke out in Ningbo, several Japanese planes flew over it." Throwing something over time". On December 27, Kajizuka, the former Kwantung Army medical director and one of the initiators of the germ warfare, was interrogated.Defendant Kajizuka confessed: He heard Kitano, the commander of Unit 731, say: "The Ishii Unit dispatched an expedition team composed of several people, and the expedition team carried the necessary equipment to the area south of Shanghai and released plague fleas from the air. At the same time, he also said that the results of this experiment are very good."Sato, the former commander of the "Rong" 1644 troop in Nanjing, was also interrogated. Sato confessed: "When I was serving in the 'Rong' troop, I personally heard Ota Dazuo and Onodera Nakazu say: 1940 in Ningbo area, 1941 Bacterial weapons were used in the Changde area and in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi area in 1942. And the plague fleas scattered from the planes were all used at that time.” On December 26, Xi Junying, Minister of Education of Unit 731, was interrogated. The defendant Xi Junying confessed: "In August or September 1940, I went to the headquarters of the Beijing Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department ... and there received a report from the Nanjing Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Headquarters. From this document, I learned about the use of bacteria in the Ningbo area.” Xi Junying also said: “I have seen a documentary describing the actions of the expedition team sent by the 731st Unit in Central China in 1940. The film." "At first, what was shown on the screen was a vessel containing infested fleas placed on the wing of an airplane. Then there was a paragraph explaining that the vessel contained plague bacteria. Four or five people boarded the plane and flew in the direction of the 'enemy' ;arrived over the enemy army. The next few shots showed the movement of the aircraft, the movement of the Chinese army and the scene of the Chinese village. Then there was a puff of smoke detached from the wings of the plane and falling downward. Then there was an explanation, indicating that the smoke was It was the plague fleas scattered on the heads of the 'enemy army'. Then the plane flew back to the airport. The words 'combat ended' appeared on the screen... Afterwards, several people got off the plane. The first to get off the plane was Lieutenant General Ishii, who followed Behind him is Major Ikari Changzhong, and I don't know the rest. Then the word "war results" appeared, and a Chinese newspaper and a piece of news translated into Japanese from this newspaper were reflected. The explanation said that in A strong plague epidemic suddenly broke out in Ningbo. The last shot shows the situation of the Chinese health team wearing white shirts disinfecting the area where the plague occurred."The confessions of the above-mentioned bacterial war criminals are sufficient to prove that the Japanese army’s crime of bacterial warfare in Ningbo in October 1940 is undeniable.

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