A man visits the Reading China booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 15, 2025. The world's largest book fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, opened here on Tuesday with a focus on licensing and rights exchange. (Xinhua/Du Zheyu)
The Chinese and English editions of Medical Human Experiments Conducted by Imperial Japanese Army for Biological Warfare in China (1932-1945) were launched during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
FRANKFURT, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A book by a German population health researcher has debuted in Frankfurt on Wednesday. It exposes the history of medical human experiments conducted by Japanese biological warfare units in China during World War II.
The launch event for the book, Medical Human Experiments Conducted by Imperial Japanese Army for Biological Warfare in China (1932-1945) (Chinese and English editions), was held during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The author, Till Baernighausen, professor and director of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, has since 1992 examined and analyzed historical documents from Japan, the United States, Germany, and other nations through a neutral academic lens, recounting the history of human experiments conducted by the Japanese during the war.
Japan's bacteriological weapons research was appalling, and its human experimentation and biological warfare programs in China represent an important yet long-neglected and poorly understood chapter, Baernighausen told Xinhua at the launch event.
People visit the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Sept. 18, 2025. People across China on Thursday commemorated the 94th anniversary of the September 18 Incident that marked the start of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. (Photo by Du Yi/Xinhua)
"It's an important chapter in medical research history within a context of war and the context of fascism, that is not very well known, not deeply understood," Baernighausen said, adding that the book will "make a contribution to providing a deep historical analysis of some of the most gruesome and human rights abusing medical human experiments that have taking place in the history of medicine."
"This dark chapter stands in complete opposition to medical ethics. It is not only a historical tragedy but also a challenge to the very foundations of human conscience and civilization," he said.
As a medical student, Baernighausen took a year off to learn Chinese in Beijing and later in Nanjing in 1992. He visited the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731, a Japanese germ warfare unit during World War II, in Harbin, northeast China.
"I'm surprised that I've never heard about this chapter. The experiments by the Japanese imperial army in an offensive biological warfare program on Chinese prisoners of war. So I start doing research," he recalled.
Baernighausen expects his book to help provide a deep historical analysis of these abuses and strengthen global society's commitment to ethical conduct in scientific research, particularly medical research, ensuring such inhumane experiments never recur.
People visit the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Du Zheyu)
Editor:Cai Xiaohui
