EVERY 6 August, Japan has a bad attack of self-righteousness as it recalls
the bombing of Hiroshima. Each year, the city鈥檚 mayor reasserts his country鈥檚
claim to victim status and calls on the world to ban nuclear weapons. Japan, we
are constantly reminded, is in a unique position to make this call because it is
the only nation ever to have suffered attack by atomic bomb.
What tends to be forgotten is that Japan is also in a unique position to work
towards the control of biological weapons鈥攏ot because it came under
attack, but because it is the world鈥檚 only perpetrator. True, hurling diseased
corpses over the parapets of besieged castles was widespread for centuries in
Europe, and a number of countries have dabbled in biological warfare. But Japan
is the only country to have practised biological warfare on a mass scale. It
happened during its war against China from 1937 to 1945, and possibly earlier
during a border war with the Soviet Union in 1929.
It does not, however, preach about the evil of these weapons. In Hiroshima,
the 6 August commemorations take place in the city鈥檚 Peace Park, in front of the
Peace Memorial and under the shadow of the Peace Dome. Right next door is the
Peace Museum, which is less dedicated to the cause of peace than to Hiroshima鈥檚
victimisation.
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I once asked the director of the museum why it did not include the other
horrific consequences of war, such as the dropping of plague-infested fleas on
Chinese cities by the Japanese Imperial Army, or the introduction of typhoid
into Russian rivers. Or Japan鈥檚 notorious Unit 731, which experimented on live
subjects to test bacteriological weapons. Chinese prisoners, known as maruta or
鈥渓ogs鈥� by Unit 731 scientists, were tied to stakes as biological bombs were
detonated nearby to see whether these would effectively transmit diseases.
Others were deliberately infected with a variety of diseases, from anthrax to
plague, and then operated on to see how the diseases spread. Why weren鈥檛 these
horrors of war included in the Peace Museum? 鈥淣ot enough space,鈥� was the
director鈥檚 common-sense reply.
The education ministry, on the other hand, has always said there is 鈥渘ot
enough evidence鈥� when asked why the nation鈥檚 school textbooks don鈥檛 make more
mention (or, in some cases, any mention) of biological warfare.
Of course the nuclear bombings were horrific, and the cities provide a living
reminder of the devastating consequences of atomic weapons. For 45 years, while
the Cold War threatened the world with nuclear annihilation, it was an important
message to get across. But we are beginning to wake up to the more immediate
threat of biological weapons. While there are few countries with the technology
to make fission bombs, near-amateurs anywhere can brew up a vat of anthrax.
Japan could lead the world in focusing on this danger. But instead of coming
clean about its history, it prefers to play the victim. What a wasted
opportunity.