US Imperialism’s Germ Warfare
In
the Korean war the US imperialists employed various inhuman tactics
such as "murder", "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations, but
they could not bring the Korean people to their knees, nor escape the
doom of defeat nor save the shattered prestige of the United States of
America. In a desperate attempt to patch up the exploded myth of their
"mightiness", the US ruling circles now recklessly resorted to the
strength of germs to exterminate the Korean people and break through the
fixed front. The dear leader Comrade Kim Jong II said:
"The US
imperialists mobilized for the Korean war their vast army, navy and air
force armed with modern weapons and the latest equipment as well as the
armies of their 15 satellites, and conducted the most cruel and brutal
warfare." (Kim Jong II, Let Us All Live and Struggle like Heroes, Eng.
ed., p. 5.)
The facts of crimes committed by the US aggressors in the
Korean war, using bacterial and chemical weapons in a "practical
warfare" as "ideal weapons for containment", were disclosed by the
statements of the US air force officers captured by the People’s Army
in the act of germ warfare and were confirmed by the "investigation
reports" of various international investigation commissions and other
material evidences.
Employing microbe weapons as the main means of
"mass destruction operations", the US ruling circles foolishly dreamed
to easily attain the strategical goal which they had failed to carry
out through the "scorched-earth" and
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‘strangulation" operations of their air force.*
*The
use of bacterial and chemical weapons was strictly banned by the law of
nations as the most barbarous, inhuman mass-destruction weapons.
However, the US aggressors strenuously insisted on the use of bacterial and chemical weapons from before the Korean war.
On
June 15, 1946, Orden White, head of the germ warfare branch of the US
aggressor army, prattled: "I believe germ warfare, as a practical form
of warfare, is quite within the bounds of possibility" (Hershel D.
Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 248.) In 1949,
Truman refused the discussion in Congress of the Geneva Protocol
outlawing germ warfare. The US imperialists took over the Japanese
"731st Unit" and other germ warfare research institutions. They employed
Ishii Shiro and other Japanese germ warfare criminals as well as those
germ warfare criminals including Schreiber who served with the germ
warfare command of fascist Hitler. They conducted experiments and
researches on germ warfare in top secret in Japan and in the "Research
and Development Command" in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the Detrik
bacteriological research centre in Frederick, the US mainland.
About
the objective of germ warfare the US imperialists pursued in the Korean
war, the US air force prisoners said in the following vein: It was,
above all, intended to "influence" the armistice negotiations by this
plan (germ warfare plan) and thus bring about a satisfactory "result",
and specifically, "cause lack of manpower for the front units and the
rear through spreading of epidemics, which would surely shake the morale
of the people to the extreme to get them to give up the ground for
operations" and "outlive the failure in the ‘strangulation’ operations
of the air force".*
*Docutnents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in
Korea, Pyongyang, p. 107.
To
summarize their testimonies, it may be said that in waging the germ
warfare the United States wanted to "wipe out" more effectives and
retrieve itself from the ignominious defeat in the "strangulation"
operations in the Korean war by employing bacterial weapons as "ideal
weapons for containment" that do not invite the "attention" of the
world public.
To this end, the US drew up a plan for criminal germ
warfare. The plan was prepared officially by the US Joint Chiefs of
Staff in the autumn of 1950. According to it, germ warfare was to be
waged in two stages-the stage of
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experimental development and
that of regular operations. In the first stage targets for the
effective dropping of germ bombs would be chosen and the methods of
dropping and the tactics of germ warfare developed. In the next stage
areas to be contaminated would be defined and concentrated bombings
carried
out.
According to what deputy chief of the executive
office for the US Secretary of the Air Force Til told to US Flight
Colonel Walker M. Mafurin, in the autumn of 1950 Chairman of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force
Vandenburg, Chief of Staff of the United States Army Collins, Chief of
Naval Operations Sherman and other war-mongers huddled in conference and
decided to develop the bacterial weapons, which had proved to be
effective, and employ them in the Korean war at the "experimental
development stage".*
*/bid..p. 105.
Under the bacteriological
operational plan of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US aggressors
produced germ bombs in considerable quantities first in Camp Detrick in
Frederick, Maryland, which was the bacteriological research centre. Then
they applied them to the Republic’s prisoners of war to test their
effectiveness.
As is widely known, the US army’s butcher boat No.
1,091 built for germ warfare was anchoring off Wonsan in March 1951
while putting the germ weapons to the test against our POWs. Afterwards,
it committed similar bloodcurdling atrocities on our POWs in the camps
on Koje and other islands.
Even according to a UP report, the US
imperialists took matters needed for germ culture out of the bodies of
prisoners of war and conducted 3,000 experiments in the laboratory of
the boat, infecting 1,400 with serious diseases and 80 per cent of the
rest with other diseases.*
* UP, May 18, 1951.
On the basis of the
experiment results on the germ bomb effectiveness made on the
prisoners, in October 1951 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff gave out a
directive for the start of regular germ warfare in Korea and its gradual
promotion from the experimental stage to regular operations.
According to the testimony of Colonel Frank H. Schewable, Chief of Staff
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of
the First Wing of the US Marine Corps, who was captured by the DPRK
side as his plane was shot down on July 8, 1952, "the general plan for
the bacteriological warfare in Korea was directed by the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff in October 1951". Then the Joint Chiefs of Staff "gave
an order" to Ridgway, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Command, "to
detail persons for the purpose and begin germ warfare in Korea to be
gradually escalated from the initial small-scale test stage". This order
was conveyed by Ridgway to Wayland, Commander of the US Far East Air
Force in Tokyo, Japan. To execute the order, he summoned Everest,
Commander of the US Fifth Air Force in Korea, and the Commander of the
19th Bomber Wing on Is. Okinawa which was under the command of the US
Far East Air Force for conference respectively and gave them the
directive to extend the criminal atrocity of germ warfare to operational
action.*
* "Testimony Given by Frank H. Schewable, Colonel of the US
Marine Corps, on December 6, 1952" (Documents on Atrocities of the US
Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, pp.
130-31).
According to the
directive given by Wayland, Commander of the Far East Air Force, the
Headquarters of the US Fifth Air Force gave orders to the wings under
its command to make sure that their squadrons drop germ bombs ten times
on a monthly average over designated areas beginning with January 10,
1952, in the experimental stage of the germ warfare. Concerning this
Colonel Mafurin of the US Air Force stated: "Beginning with January 10,
1952, we received from the Headquarters of the Fifth Air Force regular
directions as to performing germ-dropping missions. While serving with
the 51st Wing we were ordered for ten germ-dropping missions on a
monthly average, and two or three of them were carried out north of the
Amnok River. After performing all these germ-warfare missions, airmen
notified the intelligence service where germ containers had been
dropped, and the information was conveyed to the Headquarters of the
Fifth Air Force."*
* "Testimony Given by Colonel Walker M. Mafurin of the US Air Force on May 10, 1953" (Ibid., pp. 228-29.)
In
the first stage of the germ warfare, the US aggressors attempted the
following experiments: the spread and infectiousness of diseases,
efficiency of various types of germ weapons and containers, their
adaptability to various types of
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planes in transport, their
effectiveness in diverse natural features and terrains (mountainous
areas, fields, highlands, isolated and connected areas, towns and
countryside and others), their reaction on seasonal temperature, and the
effectiveness in the coldest and warmest seasons. At the same time,
the experiments were designed to develop the method of dropping and the
tactics of germ warfare.*
* "Testimony Given by Frank H.Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps, on December 6, \952"(Ibid.,pp. 131-32).
The first stage flights started in November 1951. The germ bombs were
dropped in the night by B-29s over the northeast and northwest areas of Korea.
Between January and March 1952 alone, for example, germ bombs were
dropped
concentrically on the areas of Inchon, Cholwon, Phyonggang, Kumh-wa and
the regions east of the Pukhan River in Kangwon Province; the areas of
Sohung, Jaeryong, Hwangju and Suan in Hwanghae Province; Pyongyang City;
the areas of Taedong, Junghwa and Phyongwon, the areas of Anju and
Kaechon and the areas of Kangdong, Sunchon and Yangdok in South
Phyon-gan Province; Pakchon in North Phyongan Province; and others.
Besides, germ and gas shells were showered by fire arms over the front
areas.
The germ bombs dropped by the US aggressors contained to their
utmost limits flies, fleas, spiders, bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice,
beetles, grasshoppers and other noxious insects infected with vicious
epidemic bacilli such as cholera, pest and typhus.*
* According to
the "Report of the Commission of the International Association of
Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea" made public on March 31, 1952,
different kinds of insects were found in 169 areas of north Korea. The
following table shows the kinds of insects infected with epidemic
bacilli as confirmed in the 15 typical localities:
No.Date (1952) Localities Insects
1 Jan.28 Phyongfang County, Kangwon Province Flies, fleas And spoders
2 Feb. 11 Cholwon County, Kangwon Province Flies, fleas And mosquitoes
3 Feb. 17 Phyongwon County, Kangwon Province Spiders
4 Feb. 18 Anju County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and fleas
5 Feb. 23 Phyongwon County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
6 Feb. 25 Munchon County, Kangwon Province Spiders and other insects
7 Feb. 26 Taedong County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and spiders
8 Feb. 27 Kangdong County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
9 Feb. 27 Hwanghae Province (military unit) Lice
10 Feb. 27 Sunchon County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
11 Feb. 29 Suan County, Hwanghae Province Flies and other insects
12 Mar. 1 Cholsan County, N. Phyongan Province Flies and fleas
13 Mar. 1 Yangdok County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and other insects
14 Mar. 2 Kowon County, S. Hamgyong Province Fleas and other insects
15 Mar. 4 Central District, Pyongyang Flies
"Report
of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea" dated March 31, 1952 (Ibid., p. 363).
There
broke out cases of pest and typhus never known before, to take a toll
of precious lives of people, in the places which were made victims of
the US atrocity of germ warfare.
* "Report of the International
Scientific Investigation Commission on Atrocities of Germ Warfare
Committed by the US Imperialists in Korea" dated August 31, 1952 says in
part: "The Korean and Chinese people are made the very targets of
bacterial weapons. "The bacterial weapons were employed by US units by
different methods. Some of them seem to be the improved ones of the
kinds employed by Japanese troops in World War II....
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"The
Commission was obliged to bow before evidences and bear testimony to the
fact that such inhuman methods were actually used in spite of the
general censure of the world people." (Documents on Atrocities of the US
Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 447.)
According to the criminal
plan for germ warfare, the US aggressors went gradually over from the
experimental stage to the operational stage. They schemed to extend its
scope to most of the northern half of the Republic.
In late May 1952,
Berkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force, who had taken the place
of Everest gave instruction to Jerome, Commander of the First Wing of
the US Marine Corps, to further escalate the germ warfare.
Jerome
immediately summoned staff members of the First Wing for conference to
execute the directive of Berkers. At the conference he said, "I was just
given the directive to make a great change in this action (germ
warfare-Quoter)." Referring to the plan for the operational stage of the
germ warfare, he added: "General Berkers urged us to create the
infected belt running across the central part of north Korea, The First
Wing of the Air Force of the Marine Corps is assigned to the left flank,
to which belong Sinanju, Kunu-ri and their neighbourhood and the
section between them. The Air Force is assigned to the rather bigger
section of the central part ranging from Kunu-ri to the spot 30 miles
away from the east coast. The Navy takes charge of the right flank".*
^"Testimony Given by Frank H. Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps, on December 19, 1952" (Ibid., pp. 139-40).
Upon
the directive of Berkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force, the US
aggressors planned to develop the germ warfare on an operational stage
by concentrated strikes on the fixed areas of the northern half and the
repeated contamination of them at an interval of ten days.
The US
aggressors fixed these areas along line running across the central part
of the northern half of the Republic, because they wanted to paralyze
and cut the supply line to the front. This plan fully revealed the
miserable image and vulnerability of the US imperialists who tried to
retrieve themselves from the defeat at the front on the strength of
insects and bacilli, as their air force had no chance of success in the
"strangulation" operation.
At the operational stage, they set
numerous squadrons in motion. In 1952 alone, they mobilized the 3rd and
17th Light Bomber Wings of the US Air Force, the 4th and 51st
Fighter-bomber Wings, the 8th, 18th, 49th, 58th and
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474th
Fighter-bomber Wings, and the 1st Wing of the Air Force of the Marine
Corps for the atrocious germ warfare. The mission of germ bomb dropping
was carried out by B-29 and B-26 bombers, F-51, F-80, F-84 and F-86
fighters and fighter-bombers of the US Air Force of Marine Corps.*
* Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 108.
In
November 1952, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Vandenburg himself
flew into Korea to direct the general course of germ warfare and inspect
its results together with Barkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force.
To
cover up their germ warfare crime, the US aggressors, on Vandenburg’s
directive, waged the germ warfare mainly by night. In this, they
combined the dropping of germ bombs with reconnaissance and bombings.
They kept all matters related to the microbe war in top secret and had
all the battle reports coded.*
* Ibid., p. no.
Germ bombs were
mainly dropped over the most vulnerable targets such as densely
populated areas, areas stationed by troops, traffic junctures, roads,
railways and bridges. They made no scruple to commit crimes by dropping
them on rivers and reservoirs, too.
Sinanju is a town most severely
affected by the atrocious germ warfare of the US aggressors. They made a
germ attack on Sinanju for five successive days from January 10, 1953,
mobilizing, on an average, 480 planes every day. Thus, they were the
first to launch the disgraceful largest-scale germ warfare in the war
history of the world.
The US aggressors openly launched chemical
warfare along with the germ one. Between May and June, 1951, three B-29s
dropped gas bombs on Hupho-ri, Jukdong-ri, Ryongjong-ri and Ryongsu-ri
of Samhwa Sub-County around Nampho, causing 1,379 casualties. Gas bombs
were also dropped on Yong-song-ri and Wonchon-ri in Hwanghae Province on
August 1 and on Hakson-ri north of Wonsan on January 9, 1952, thus
committing a criminal atrocity of killing innocent people.
The US
germ warfare outrages were perpetrated with the active support of the
Japanese militarists, who had "experience" of germ warfare.
The
Japanese militarists rendered active assistance to the US aggressors in
the drawing up of a barbarous bacteriological war plan. They turned the
territo-
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ry of Japan into an attack and supply base for
conducting germ warfare and provided the Americans with information on
the "experience"* they had gained in their research into germ weapons
and in the production of germ bombs and on methods for conducting
bacteriological warfare and their latest achievements in that field.
*
During the Second World War the Japanese aggressors perpetrated the
criminal act of using germ weapons for the first time in history to
massacre Chinese, Russian and Korean people in northeast China. For this
purpose, they organized such germ weapon research organs as "Unit 731"
and "Unit 100", special army units, in northeast China, headed by Ishii
Shiro, army surgeon lieutenant-general of the former Japanese army. In
the name of a "medical research centre1’, the special units had
libraries, laboratories, plants for the manufacture of germ weapons and
prisons, all requirements for research into bacteriology and experiments
on it. Thus they cultured cholera, typhus, pests and other germs in
rats, fleas and other insects and animals and used POWs in experiments
for their war of human butchery. Their "special plants" near Haerbin and
Changchun produced many types of bacteriological weapons including
fabbit to use them in germ warfare. They served to be the wherewithal of
US imperialists in their germ warfare.
(Data of the Trials of the
Servicemen of the Former Japanese Army Accused on the Charge of
Preparation and Application of Germ Weapons, Moscow, the Foreign
Languages Publishing House, 1950 edition, pp. 130-31.)
As they
admit, with neither germ nor chemical warfare could the US aggressors
bring the Korean people to their knees or retrieve themselves from
ignominious defeat.*
* In his book entitled The United States
Defeated, Yoshitake Yojo wrote: "The germ warfare waged by the US
imperialists only proved complete military defeat of the UN troops.
Bacterial weapons, before being denounced for inhumanity, immorality and
barbarity, are lethal weapons for the defeated militarily. What awaits
ahead of those who use them is the judgement of military defeat"
(Yoshitake Yojo, The United States Defeated, Tokyo, p. 98).
Upholding
the order of the Military Commission issued by President Kim II Sung,
the entire Korean people launched a powerful mass movement to cope with
germ warfare. They placed observation posts and anti-epidemic corps in
different parts, discovered germ bombs and germ carriers scattered by
227
the
US aggressors and thus prevented possible damage in good time. This
foiled the aggressive schemes of the US imperialists to massacre our
people and cut off the supply line to the front. Their inhuman atrocity
of germ warfare was made the target of the world people’s unanimous
curse and denunciation and thus they met ever more serious political and
moral defeat.
The report of the Commission of the International
Association of Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea dated March 31,
1952, denounced the US imperialists, saying: "The use of such inhuman
weapons as germ weapons must be taken to indicate a new degree of
savagery in the conduct of so-called civilized states which must
threaten every man, woman and child".*] In their joint statement on
April 2nd, 1952, home and foreign journalists vehemently denounced them:
"We call on the conscience of the whole world to demand the cessation
of such horrible crimes against humanity, which contain the seeds of
destroying all people, and the punishment of the criminals responsible
for it."*2
*1. Documents on Atrocities of The US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 391. *2. Ibid., p. 398.
As
their aggressive scheme to bring the Korean war to a close in reliance
on their military and technical superiority was doomed to failure, the
US aggressors could not but resort to such a most barbarous and inhuman
means of war as germ warfare which was banned by international law. This
atrocity was clear proof of their last-ditch struggle. At the same
time, it showed that they were so weak and barbarous as to try to find a
way out with the help of insects. It also revealed once again before
the whole world that the US aggressors, descendants of the murderous
founders of the United States of America, were no other than cannibals
of the 20th century and two-legged beasts in the guise of a "civilized
nation" who had no scruples of employing any brutal methods and means of
war to achieve their aggressive aim.*
* David W. Conde wrote that of
the 38 US prisoners of war who had confessed to their participation in
the atrocious germ warfare in Korea, ten openly retracted their
confession in their letters sent after their return home to the UN
Secretary-General on October 26, 1953. But he added with scorn that "at
that time some observers held that if all the 38 prisoners had made
similar statements the position of the United States would have been
firmer". (David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Tokyo, Vol.
II, p. 411.)
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