Joseph Needham in China and Korea, 1952

Six years after departing China in April 1946, Joseph Needham returned under very different circumstances to a very different People’s Republic of China. In June 1952, at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he travelled to China via Paris, Prague and Moscow. Following allegations by China and North Korea of the use of bacteriological warfare during the Korean War, Needham had agreed to serve on the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China 調查在朝鮮和中國的細菌戰事實國際科學委員會. Between 23rd June and 12th August, the Commission met 39 times, travelling to North-east China and North Korea to carry out their investigations. A resulting 665-page Report with numerous appendices was typed in English entirely by Needham and signed by members of the Commission at a ceremony on 31st August 1952.

Though Needham deposited the majority of his papers regarding the work of the Commission in the Department of Documents of the Imperial War Museum in London, a number of interesting items remained among his archives at the Needham Research Institute. These include his diary of the Commission meetings, letters home to his wife Dorothy Moyle Needham, notes made while travelling, and a large number of photographs, either taken by him or given to him.

These items provide unique insights into not only the day-to-day work of the Commission, but also the personal commitment Needham made to it, his delight at being back in China, and concerns about the work of the Commission and its aftermath. They also shed light on a particularly contentious and sensitive aspect of the Korean War in the early phase of the Cold War, one that is still of personal significance to descendants of those involved. In view of this, we have included below a variety of sources about the historical context of the Commission. To aid readers we have also created a brief itinerary and a list of the persons mentioned in the photographs.