Alarm in Washington: A Wartime "Exposé" of Japan's Biological Warfare Program

In the summer of 1944, as the Pacific War entered its final and bloodiest phase, a book purporting to reveal Japan's biological warfare (BW) program, as well as the American government's incompetence in preparing to combat it, was published. After briefly outlining the Japanese and American wartime BW efforts as well as the contents of the book and the background of its author, this article focuses on the alarmed responses to the book of the U.S. government and the media. In closing, the article briefly comments on similarities and differences between the 1944 "alarm" and the 2001 anthrax "scares."