Before and during World War II, Japan used opium and heroin to finance its military and enslave millions of Chinese people

Peter Preskar

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Short History

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Mar 7, 2021

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In 1939, Imperial Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Japan needed raw materials for its fast-growing industry. One year later, in 1932, Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Manchukuo was an awful state to live in, except if you were Japanese. The Japanese conducted horrific war crimes against locals. These crimes included systematic raping, forced prostitution, slave labor, gruesome medical experiments, child molestation, and drug trafficking.

The Japanese turned Manchuria into a drug state

In occupied Manchuria, the Japanese quickly established a monopoly on opium cultivation, processing, and trade.

Officially, control over opium production was necessary to reduce the opium epidemic among the Chinese. In reality, the Japanese did the opposite. They massively increased the number of drug addicts.

In the 1930s, around ten percent of the Chinese population became addicted to opium.

The Japanese had two goals they wanted to achieve by taking over the production of opium. The first was obvious — the financial gain to finance the Japanese war effort. The taxation of opium smokers, the profits from opium sales, and the use of opium as a payment filled up the treasury.

In the 1930s, the Japanese military earned US$300 million a year from drug sales.

The second goal was less obvious, but much more devious — the disintegration and control of the entire Chinese nation.

The Japanese wanted to turn every Chinese person into a drug addict who would do anything to get the daily dose of opium.

The encouragement of opium use in China was in stark contrast with strict anti-drug laws in Japan. For example, if they caught a Japanese soldier with opium, he would lose citizenship.

The Japanese intelligence officer ran a drug cartel

In parallel with the official production of opium, the Japanese gangs run an efficient drug cartel. The cartel worked closely with the Japanese government since it was led by Kenji Doihara (1883-1948). Doihara was a Japanese general and leading intelligence officer in Manchuria.

Kenji Doihara was the mastermind of the Manchurian drug trade and de facto ruler of the Manchurian drug cartel.

Opium, morphine, and heroin were everywhere. The Japanese created special drug houses camouflaged as brothels, pharmacies, or even groceries to sell drugs.

A drug addict just knocked on the door of such a house and waited for a small hole in the door to open. Afterward, the addict put his hand with money into the hole in the door. The dealer took the money and administered the drug directly into the arm of the addict.

In the 1930s, ninety percent of all illicit drugs in the world were of the Japanese origin.

After World War II, Doihara was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. The Allies hanged him in 1948.

The Japanese forced drugs upon the Chinese to get them addicted

General Kenji Doihara devised multiple plans to increase the number of drug addicts in China. More addicts meant more profits from the drug trade.

The Japanese manufactured a special version of popular cigarettes, which were sold under the label ‘Golden Bat’. They added small amounts of heroin and opium into these cigarettes.

Doihara’s employees distributed the cigarettes for free to the unsuspecting Chinese. After a while, these poor people became drug addicts.

Of course, the sale of these special ‘Golden Bat’ cigarettes was forbidden in Japan.

The opium-laced cigarettes increased the number of addicts among the Chinese. Yet, Doihara devised an even more horrific strategy to expand the drug market.

The Japanese organized various humanitarian organizations throughout China to treat tuberculosis. In the 1930s, tuberculosis rampaged through rural China. Unbeknown to the poor Chinese patients, the Japanese humanitarians added opium to the medicines. These Chinese soon became drug addicts.

Once the Chinese became addicted to opium, they would do anything to get their daily dose.

Doihara was very inventive in his efforts to increase his customer base. Another tactic he used was prostitution. He established a network of brothels across China. He got his prostitutes hooked on opium and heroin. Afterward, he forced them to sell opium to their customers.

Each prostitute had to sell six opium pipes to her customers to get one opium pipe for herself.

Among his prostitutes were many white women from Russia. After the October revolution in 1917, tens of thousands of Russian women ran away from the Bolshevik regime. They settled in the Far East, including Manchuria. Most of the women were widows and poor, thus it was easy for Doihara to force them into prostitution.

The white prostitutes were very popular among Westerners and the Chinese as well.

World War II turned Japan into a country of drug addicts

Before World War II (1939-1945), strict anti-drug laws limited the number of drug addicts in Japan to only a few. However, World War II changed the dynamic of drug abuse in the homeland Japan.

The Japanese companies produced large quantities of methamphetamine to boost the Japanese war effort. The methamphetamine was sold under the label ‘Philopon’ which means ‘love of work’.

Methamphetamine improves mood and increases alertness, concentration, and energy. As such, it was an ideal drug for pilots and submarine crews. The methamphetamine enabled soldiers to fight for days without rest or food.

Also, factory workers took methamphetamine to work for tens of hours straight.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered. The country was in chaos.

The Japanese were addicted to drugs and left with huge stockpiles of methamphetamines. In the 1950s, Japan experienced an epidemic of drug abuse. Over two million Japanese were addicted to methamphetamine and amphetamine.

Conclusion

The Japanese established a huge drug empire in China, hoping it would help them win World War II. Their tactics to expand the drug empire were truly devilish.

Ironically, after losing World War II, Japan itself became a victim of drugs. In the post-war years, the number of drug addicts skyrocketed.