Disease Prevention Experimentation
During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan began to study the effects of diseases upon its soldiers. Disease was responsible for 89% of Japanese casualties in the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese resolved to learn from their prior mistakes and reduce the amount of unnecessary deaths in their current face-off with Russia. The Japanese regarded casualties inflicted from disease as "unacceptable", so they conducted experiments with preventative medicine to combat battlefield diseases. Japanese scientists quickly became renown throughout the world for their successful work in preventative medicine. Unfortunately, their extensive knowledge of medicine served as the foundation for Japan's biological weapons program. Battlefield diseases previously studied for preventative medicine would be used to create deadly pathogen bombs.
" The field equipment of the Army Corps in Japan is excellent, light, simple, and inexpensive, and full of ingenious devices in almost every department." |