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Japan sending chemists to analyze bombs
By Wu Gang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-10 22:30 Japan has agreed to send
experts to Qiqihar next week to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by
Japanese invading troops during World War II, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said
on Wednesday.
Japanese experts have confirmed the 50-plus artillery shells found earlier in
Northeastern China are chemical weapons left by the Japanese troops, according
to the China National Radio website.
The ammunition was discovered by a villager on his property in the Angangxi
District of Qiqihar on May 23. No injuries were reported after the site was
quickly sealed off, with the residents evacuated.
The Japanese experts will excavate the shells on June 16 at the site and send
them to a temporary storehouse in Qiqihar after a sealing procedure, according
to a Foreign Ministry press release.
Used as a wartime Japanese chemical weapons base site, the city has been
overshadowed by numerous poisoning incidents in past decades, including the one
on August 4 last year. That incident killed one resident and injured 43.
In another development, six bombs believed to be left behind by wartime
Japanese air forces were found in southern Beijing on Tuesday.
The iron-coated bombs, about 1.3 metres and 50 kilograms, were spotted by
construction workers at a residential real property development site in Daxing
County.
Police cordoned off the site and evacuated the workers soon after they
received the report.
Explosive experts were sent to dig out the six bombs, which were found
containing no explosives or fuses.
No signs or characters were found on the seriously rusted munitions. But
experts believe they were abandoned Japanese ammunition.
The site where the bombs were found was several kilometres away from Nanyuan
Airport, which had been occupied and used for military purposes by Japanese
troops after Japan took Beijing in 1937.
Japan was defeated in 1945.
It is rare to find so many air bombs at once in Beijing. But spotting of
other weapons like mortar shells or grenades occurs now and then, a police
officer told China Daily.
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