In the first half of the twentieth century, the possibility of weaponizing bacteria and waging a biological war became a frequently discussed topic in Europe, America, and Asia. This article traces the discourse on bacteriological warfare (xijunzhan) before, during, and in the aftermath of the Second Sino-Japanese War and puts it in the historical context of the development of biomedical sciences, epidemic prevention, and governance in Republican China. The discussion of biowarfare might be understood as an expression of both the skepticism about the scientization as well as technologization of warfare and the fear of epidemics ravaging China at the time. Considering the prevalence of epidemics in China during the first half of the twentieth century, the horror scenario of biological warfare did not necessarily lead to the direct expansion of or change in actual anti-epidemic measures during the Republican era. However, the very possibility of bacteriological attacks increased the sensitivity and knowledge of decision makers, military personnel, and large parts of the population regarding the threat of infectious disease and epidemics. The dread of enemies dropping vessels filled with disease vectors helped to justify the promulgation and implementation of hygiene protocols, vaccine campaigns, and microbiological knowledge.
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The man who escaped smallpox went down before scarlet fever. The man who was immune to yellow fever was carried away by cholera; and if he were immune to that, too, the Black Death, which was the bubonic plague, swept him away. For it was these bacteria, and germs, and microbes, and bacilli, cultured in the laboratories of the West, that had come down upon China in the rain of glass.
Jack London: The Unparalleled Invasion (London and Métraux Citation2009: 135)
In 1910, Jack London published the short story The Unparalleled Invasion that narrates how, out of fear of China’s uncontrollable population growth, a concerted attack by “all the Western nations and some few from the East” with various bacteriological bombs dropped by airplanes entirely extinguishes the Chinese people. A devastated and emptied China is repopulated through “the happy intermingling of [settlers with various] nationalities” which becomes nothing less than “a tremendous and successful experiment in cross-fertilization” (London and Métraux Citation2009: 137).Footnote1 Only a few years later, during the First World War, the German army employed bacteriological attacks, mostly to sabotage Allied supply lines. The possibility of weaponizing bacteria and biological warfare has been a hotly debated topic among politicians, scientists, and members of the military, as well as in the popular press around the globe, including China, ever since. The Geneva Protocol, a widely recognized international disarmament treaty, signed in 1925, explicitly prohibits the use of poisonous gases and “bacterial methods of warfare.” While the Republic of China officially acceded in 1929, the Japanese government never ratified the protocol, despite the fact that it was among the initial signatories.
