Race-based experiments conducted on soldiers during Second World War
By Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
January 10, 2009
The United States government conducted race-based mustard gas experiments on its own soldiers during the Second World War, says a new study from a University of Alberta historian.
In at least nine research projects, government-funded scientists examined how different races would react to mustard gas exposure. African-Americans, Japanese-Americans and Puerto Ricans were tested, with whites used as a control group.
The experiments were part of a larger project in which 60,000 soldiers were subjected to tests, including skin-patch tests, aerial spraying and one in which subjects were put in a chamber and subjected to the gas until they were incapacitated.
For all of the soldiers, the testing caused great pain and humiliation, says Susan Smith, the author of the study.
"Most frequently, the men had burns and blistering on the skin, especially on the face, hands, underarms, buttocks and genitals," she writes.
"They were sometimes in agony for days, weeks, and even months from the enormous, grotesque blisters and oozing sores."
Later, many of them suffered long-term health problems, such as psychologi-cal disorders, cancer, asthma, emphysema and eye problems, including blindness.
Smith's research was published this fall in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. She became interested in the experiments after hearing a 2000 news report about the Canadian Defence Department acknowledging it conducted similar, though not race-based, experiments on its soldiers in Alberta. Great Britain and Australia also conducted similar experiments.
But the U.S. was the only Allied country that did racial testing.
"The U.S. program was quite well-organized, it was a very specific set of experiments," Smith said.
It is unknown how many soldiers were part of the racial studies. Smith said it was certainly dozens and possibly hundreds of people.
The scientists involved in the study assumed that African-Americans had thicker skin than whites and would therefore be more immune to the gas. In the end, their research didn't confirm their prejudices.
"They concluded that human vulnerability crossed the colour line," Smith said. Individual variability was much more prominent than variability between racial groups.
The case, Smith said, is a good example of how cultural forces shape scientific research. The U.S. military was segregated at the time, and despite ample evidence to the contrary, scientists of that era continued to probe for differences between races. Race-based research continued in the U.S., military through the Korean War and possibly as late as the 1990s.
Smith will discuss her findings on Monday at noon at the U of A in room 10-4 of the Tory building.
Her presentation is part of the university's race, anti-racism and knowledge for social justice series.
amclean@thejournal.canwest.com