Chinese museum reveals Japanese atrocity of transfusing animal blood into humans during WWII

This photo taken on June 23, 2026 shows the original piece of a journal of the Japanese Army Medical Corps published on August 1, 1940, in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/He Shan)

HARBIN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese museum on Tuesday released details of shocking live experiments conducted by the Imperial Japanese Army during its invasion of China, which included appalling accounts of animal blood being transfused into human beings.

A report archived at the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army, authored by Japanese military surgeon Tsutomu Saito, confirmed that in 1938, Japanese forces used blood drawn from horses, sheep, dogs, rabbits and chickens to carry out live experiments on 23 prisoners of war.

According to Jin Shicheng, a researcher with the exhibition hall, the report on xenogeneic blood transfusion for acute hemorrhage was published in a journal by the Japanese Army Medical Corps on August 1, 1940, after the study was presented at a Japanese military medical conference that took place in March that year.

When exploring battlefield first-aid solutions, the Imperial Japanese Army tested a wide range of blood transfusion methods, including preserved blood, serum, dried blood and even blood acquired from corpses. In pursuit of the so-called "optimal solution" for emergency blood supply, Saito proposed the idea of directly transfusing fresh animal blood into human subjects.

Research showed that in "acute massive blood loss" experiments, Japanese troops recorded in detail the condition of victims after they were drained of 1,200 to 2,500 milliliters of blood.

The records described them as "completely unconscious," with "severe cyanosis across the body," skin taking on a "cadaverous color," and "rapid breathing, falling into a state of suffocation." After being infused with animal blood, some victims passed bloody urine and developed high fever, chills and other acute rejection-like and abnormal reactions.

Tan Tian, another researcher with the exhibition hall, explained that to study the effects of heterologous blood in blood vessels, Japanese troops cut open victims' necks, forcibly blocked blood flow in the carotid artery using vascular clamps, injected animal serum directly into the arteries of living people, and then drew blood for observation.

To track how long animal blood survived in the body, they injected chicken blood into the bodies of victims and conducted microscopic examinations for three consecutive days.

The fact that Japanese troops published reports on live human experiments in publicly circulated journals shows that these crimes against humanity were already an "open secret" in Japan's medical community at the time, according to Jin.

The journal also included 187 articles by core members of Unit 731, such as Shiro Ishii and Masaji Kitano, on bacteriological warfare and human experiments.

Last Saturday, Japanese media Kyodo News carried a news report about the Japanese human experiment involving animal blood, noting that such practices constituted a clear violation of medical ethics.

Japanese invaders, who conducted large-scale and gruesome human experimentation and germ warfare, shall forever be nailed to the eternal pillar of shame, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily media briefing in response to a related query.

During World War II, the Japanese invading forces established a germ warfare network across multiple Asian countries, with Unit 731 located in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, serving as a top-secret base for germ weapons and human experimentation.

This photo taken on June 23, 2026 shows the content of Japanese forces using blood drawn from horses, sheep, dogs, rabbits and chickens to carry out live experiments on 23 prisoners of war in a journal of the Japanese Army Medical Corps published on August 1, 1940, in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/He Shan)