The FSB has published documents about Japan's plans to wage a bacteriological war with the USSR

During the Second World War, Japan planned to conduct military operations against the USSR with the help of bacteriological weapons. The relevant archival documents were published on August 18 by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on the website.

"The Japanese General Staff planned to use bacteriological weapons directly during offensive operations against the Red Army in order to disable its manpower, as well as, in the event of the retreat of Japanese troops, to infect the abandoned territory in order to cause mass epidemics in enemy troops and among the civilian population," the department said.

It is noted that in order to implement the plan in the territory controlled by Manchuria in 1935 and 1936, units were formed — detachments No. 731 and 100 and their branches — which were engaged in the development of bacteriological weapons and the study of ways to use them in combat.

So, in 1939, during the conflict in the Khalkhin Gol River area, after the retreat of Japanese troops, the staff of detachment No. 731 poured cylinders with typhoid, paratyphoid and dysentery bacteria into the river. The purpose of this action was to poison the Red Army soldiers, as well as local Mongolian cattle breeders.

In 1940-1942, the activities of such bacteriological units were directed against China. In the period from 1941 to 1945, experiments were also conducted on living people and the development of new ways to infect flora and fauna. The conduct of acts of sabotage by detachments was carried out until 1945.

«...The entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan and the rapid advance of the Soviet army into the depths of Manchuria deprived us of the opportunity to use bacteriological weapons against the USSR and other countries," said the commander of the Kwantung Army of Japan, Army General Otzo Yamada, during an interrogation conducted in 1949.

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On August 15, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that Tokyo expresses its remorse for the events that took place during the Second World War. He said that even after 80 years, the country must repent for the tragedies of the past and firmly remember the lessons of the Second World War, especially in those conditions when the modern generation of Japanese no longer knows its horrors.

Earlier, on August 30, 2024, the FSB declassified the archive on Japan's use of bio-weapons against the USSR at Khalkhin Gol. Archival documents reveal previously unknown episodes of military operations on the Khalkhin Gol River. According to the FSB, the trial of former Japanese servicemen involved in the development, production and testing of bacteriological weapons during World War II took place on December 25-30, 1949 in Khabarovsk.

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