When the earth stood still

Since the dawn of time it has always been man against man, nation against nation, followed by never-ending regional and religious conflicts. Before long, there followed global conflicts which twice in our lifetime brought untold sorrow and suffering. Nations, sensing the futility of these wars, pledged to eliminate this scourge and decided to unite. With relative peace, the world enjoyed an economic boom. We were flying high – only to be brought crashing down to earth. Today, for the very first time in the history of mankind, the world is united in a war against a common, invisible enemy — the Coronavirus.

It came out of a clear blue sky and nations across the globe are scrambling to find ways and means to combat this brutal and deadly enemy. We have resorted to pitiful and pathetic ways to keep us healthy and safe by the washing of hands and social distancing. We are cloistered in our homes to stop the spread of this virus. Schools have been closed. Commercial airliners have disappeared from our skies. Cruise ships remain idly afloat at terminals. Hotels, restaurants, bars and other businesses have thrown in the towel. Shopping malls have been closed and stores shuttered. Some sporting events have taken place with no spectators! The 2020 Olympics and other major events like Wimbledon have been cancelled. The economy of all nations has been decimated. The fear, the dread and the uncertainty have caused nations to close their borders. Courageous reporters keep sending photos from around the globe and all we see is a frightened, empty earth that is standing still on its axis.

We should not let fear overtake us. We have to focus on the important and vital task at hand -to develop a vaccine to combat this silent, invisible, vicious, brutal and deadly killer. It is not enough just to contain the virus. We have to find a way to destroy it. Make no mistake. This is an all-out war!

History is the best teacher. We know that Germany was the first country to use bacteria as a weapon. Their chlorine gas, used in World War I, killed more than 5,000 and wounded another 15,000 men. It was also used to infect horses with biological agents to prevent their use by the Allies. After World War I, it became clear that biological warfare was a far greater threat than nuclear weapons. Germs have killed more human beings than all the wars in history. From the infected arrows of the Bronze Age archers, to the gifting of pox infected blankets to North American Indians, to the germ infested factories of World War I and World War II, to the use of napalm and Agent orange in the Vietnam War, to Saddam Hussein using mustard gas on the Kurds, humans understood that germ caused diseases and could be a terrifying and deadly weapon. It was a dastardly thing to do, but it clearly illustrated the willingness of humans to use such tactics even if it violated all civilized notions of war. The fact that it would kill indiscriminately – innocent women and children, didn’t seem to bother the decision makers.

President Trump and others refer to the Coronavirus as the China virus. We fail to understand that it wasn’t the Chinese but the Japanese who were hellbent on developing and perfecting germ warfare. It all began in December 1937 with the Rape of Nanking when the Japanese Imperial Army murdered an estimated 300,000 people and perpetrated widespread raping and looting. In addition, war crimes were committed by Japan that consisted of conducting chemical and biological experiments on the  Chinese whom the Japanese considered inferior. Emperor Hirohito signed orders specifying the use of chemicals on the Chinese. During the BATTLE of WUHAN in 1938, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on several occasions. During the Battle of Yichang, the Japanese launched 1000 yellow gas shells and 1500 red gas shells at the Chinese forces. The Japanese later reported that the effect of those shells was considerable.

During World War II, special Japanese units conducted unspeakable experiments on civilians and POWS. One of the most infamous was UNIT 731 under the leadership of Shiro Ishi. Victims were subjected to agonizing experiments and amputations were carried out without anesthesia for the sole purpose of attaining biological weapons and increasing their knowledge of germ warfare. An estimated 400,000 Chinese died of bubonic plague, cholera anthrax and other diseases. The infamous UNIT 731 became known as the forgotten Asian Auschwitz.

In 1948, those scientists and doctors were brought to trial by the Allied War Crimes Tribunal. Twenty-three were found guilty of unspeakable crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Others were given life imprisonment and prison terms. In 1950, the military governor of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur commuted all the death sentences and significantly reduced most of the prison terms in exchange for the files and data gathered through those human experiments so that the knowledge gained could be incorporated in the U.S. Biological warfare program. The perpetrators were later given responsible positions in Japan’s pharmaceutical industry, medical schools and in the health ministry. Victims’ accounts were largely ignored and brushed aside as Communist propaganda.

There is irrefutable evidence of the research and development of Germ warfare by the Japanese and the orders given to use them during the BATTLE of WUHAN. It is therefore logical that this is where we should begin if we are to trace the source of the Coronavirus. Was it an experimental biological weapon that inadvertently escaped a lab in China during those unspeakable experiments before and during World War II and lay dormant in a vial or container? Perhaps that was broken during construction work in Wahun and disappeared into the atmosphere. This is entirely possible because unexplored World War II bombs were found in Germany during construction work. Bill Gates, predicted in a TED talk in 2015″ “If anything that kills millions of people, it is likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a bomb.” Dr. Filippa Lentos at the Stockholm International Peace Institute pointed out that for the past 100 years, many countries have processed biological weapons.

We know the names of the scientists and doctors who worked on those weapons. We know where they went after the war. We have a trail and it is imperative we follow that trail, leaving no stone unturned. It is bound to lead somewhere. We should be like Sherlock Homes and not Inspector Clouseau as we have been doing during the past few months. We should demand that the Japanese make public those files. And lest we forget, the Americans also have files containing the data from those unspeakable crimes against humanity.

These steps may seem ridiculous, immature and naive. But it’s all we have. We have to start somewhere. To do nothing is not an option. In the meanwhile, COVID 19 has spread fear, dread and death in almost 200 countries across the globe and the death toll is mounting daily. While we like to think that this virus has brought us together, let us  not forget for a moment it has also exposed the evil in us. In our blind quest and unbridled greed for power, money and territorial gains, we have turned ourselves into murderous savages, using any means to obtain our objective. We can print all the money in the world in the false notion that it is going to help us weather this storm. We will only find that we have enough money to paper our walls but not enough to buy a loaf of bread — if it available. And if that loaf of bread is there, we will claw, tear each apart and even kill for it. After all, the difference between civilized order and human savagery is but a thin red line.