Quarantine Turned to Bacteriological Warfare: the Kwantung Army's Response to the Horse Epidemic during the Second World War

After the Mukden Incident, the Kwantung Army, with the assistance of Japan and puppet Manchurian institutions, initially established a military horses quarantine system, with good results. The Kwantung Army also conducted an in-depth investigation and study of all kinds of horse epidemics, from which anthrax and glanders were selected as key research subjects. After 1936, the Kwantung Army turned to bacteriological weapons research. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Kwantung Army accelerated the development of bacteriological weapons, carring out human experiments and field toxicity tests, and instigating bacterial weapons attacks on the Zhejiang (浙江)-Jiangxi (江西) battlefield, causing long-term harm to the local people and the ecology. On the eve of Japan's defeat, the Kwantung Army violated international conventions by mass-producing equine epidemic bacteriological weapons, setting up army groups of animal epidemic units, preparing for large-scale germ warfare, and committing serious war crimes and crimes against humanity.