"Japanese Army Conducted Animal-to-Human Blood Transfusion Experiments During the Second Sino-Japanese War"

Confirmed by Kyodo News Through Army Medical Corps Newsletter

23 Experimental Subjects Identified... All Unidentified Individuals

Official documents have been confirmed that support the fact that the Japanese Army conducted "xenotransfusion" experiments—injecting animal blood into humans—during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

On the 21st, Yonhap News, citing Kyodo News, reported that the official newsletter of the "Army Medical Corps," which documents the repeated conduct of such experiments, has been identified.

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The experiments are recorded as having taken place in the autumn of 1938; however, the location is omitted—presumably due to censorship. According to the records, 23 individuals were subjected to these experiments, all of whom remain unidentified. The report refers to these subjects as "patients," but Kyodo News noted that there are no descriptions indicating either the necessity for transfusion or that the individuals were wounded Japanese soldiers.

Kyodo News further reported, "There are suspicions that these experiments were conducted in China under the pretext of research to address battlefield hemorrhaging, where it was difficult to secure large quantities of blood for transfusions."

The experimental subjects were subjected to various unethical procedures that were considered extreme at the time due to concerns about rejection reactions. These included being transfused with large amounts of horse blood or, after surgery to block blood flow in the neck, being injected with animal serum—not for treatment, but purely for experimental purposes. It is reported that, in addition to horses, blood from sheep and dogs was also used. There was also an experiment in which chicken blood, which has differently shaped red blood cells, was injected to investigate how long it would remain in the body.

The report on these experiments was presented in March 1940 at a meeting of the "Army Military Medical Research Association." This meeting was attended by numerous military medical officers, including the head of the Army Medical Bureau, and pharmaceutical officers. During the report, an instructor from a military medical school stated, "In this incident (the Second Sino-Japanese War), we have had multiple experiences with xenotransfusion using animals as a blood source." Although some subjects experienced side effects such as high fever due to xenotransfusion, no deaths were reported. The report therefore argued that xenotransfusion should be established as a formal research topic.

It is widely believed that, at the time of Japan's defeat in World War II, the Japanese military systematically attempted to conceal evidence of human experimentation. Thus, Kyodo News emphasized that the confirmation of related records in the official newsletter of the Army Medical Corps—a public institution—is considered highly unusual.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.