Japan's Plan To Bomb The U.S. With Plague During World War 2
Japan's Plan To Bomb The U.S. With Plague During World War 2
Operation PX, also know as Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, was a Japanese plan to wage biological warfare against cities in Southern California in retaliation for the US firebombing of Japanese cities, which killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. However, the operation was abandoned shortly after its planning was finalized.
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The operation was designed and proposed by Vice Admiral Yisaburo Ozawa, the acting commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was aided by Surgeon General Shiro Ishii, the Director of Unit 731; the biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, located in Harbin, Manchukuo (Japanese occupied Manchuria).
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The Japanese plan called for using aircraft launched from I-400-class submarine aircraft carriers to drop "bombs" containing millions of plague-infested fleas. The submarines were designed to surface, launch their planes, then quickly dive again before they were discovered. The planned date for execution was 22 September 1945.
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The I-400 submarine aircraft carrier had a tonnage of 6,560 tons, was 122 meters long, 12 meters high, 7 meters wide, had a crew of 144 sailors, could dive to more than 100 meters deep and had a range of 37,000 nautical miles. The speed under water was 12, and above water 35 kilometers per hour. In front of the bridge was a watertight hangar, which housed three type Aichi M6A 1 Seiran seaplanes.
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Rats and insects with bubonic plague, cholera, dengue fever and typhoid were kept on board in strictly insulated cages, destined to be used as bacteriological weapons to bomb the American population. But on 26 March 1945, with the I-400 already en route, this operation was canceled by General Yosijro Umezu, Chief of the Japanese General Staff. He stated that a germ warfare against the United States could escalate into a war against all of humanity.
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