Dirty Little Secrets investigates one of the most controversial allegations of the Korean War: North Korea’s claim that the United States used biological weapons during the conflict. The film follows Professor Masataka Mori, who spent decades investigating the case, as he travels inside North Korea to gather eyewitness testimony from survivors and witnesses of alleged germ-warfare attacks.
Working with Mori’s rare access and long-established trust, the film visits villages and townships where bombs allegedly containing infected insects, rodents and food were dropped. The investigation also travels to Harbin, China, where survivors and researchers connected to Japan’s wartime Unit 731 help trace the darker history of biological warfare in Asia, and the unresolved questions surrounding what happened after the Second World War.
The allegations have been consistently denied by successive US administrations, and remain highly disputed. But for North Korea, they form part of a powerful historical memory that continues to shape suspicion of the United States and the politics of the Korean Peninsula.
Made during the early years of Al Jazeera English, Dirty Little Secrets was another successful collaboration between veteran investigative journalist Tim Tate and filmmaker Eki Rrahmani. Part historical investigation and part geopolitical inquiry, the film examines how the unresolved legacy of war can continue to influence fear, propaganda and international relations decades later.
