PLA Daily 2003-12-02
On August 4, a gas poisoning caused by abandoned mustard gas bomb left
behind by the Japanese troops in the wartime happened in Qiqihar of northeast
China's Heilongjiang Province. The victims reached over 40 and this is the most
serious mustard gas poisoning disaster since the establishment of the People's
Republic of China. On November 8, experts from China and Japan conducted a
20-day test and sealing of the more than 700 abandon chemical bombs in the
trusteeship warehouse in Fula'erji District of Qiqihar. Actually, on the land of
China, poisoning cases caused by various abandoned poison have happened many
times, resulting in most of the victims losing the capability of taking care of
themselves. The abandoned chemical weapons are just like ghosts haunting the
abandoned area and even the world.
In the period of Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese troops used large amount
of chemical weapons in 19 provinces of China and caused the casualties of more
than 2 million Chinese servicepersons and civilians. When Japan surrendered in
1945, the Japanese troops, to destroy evidence and cover the fact, buried the
chemical weapons on the spot or just threw them to rivers and lakes. The
chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese troops are the chief cause of the
frequently happened poisoning accidents. For more than half a century, the
number of victims who are directly impaired by the abandoned chemical weapons
has added up to over 2000.
The abandoned chemical weapons are various in kinds, large in quantity and
wide in distribution. According to the estimation of the Chinese government,
there are about 2 million chemical weapons buried in China and northeast China
has more abandoned weapon sites and larger number of abandoned weapons than
anywhere else. These toxics are in the forms of chemical shell, chemical mortar
shell, chemical aerial bomb, toxic smoke tube and bulk toxic.
For more than half a century, the chemical weapons abandoned by the
Japanese troops has been buried underground or at the lakebed and most of them
has eroded and rusted and has serious leakage problem. The leaked toxic will
cause pollution to soil, air and water source and injury. In addition, most of
the abandoned weapons have such explosives as TNT and picric acid and are easy
to go off.
For many years, the Japanese government has never provided the detailed
document for the abandoned chemical weapons, which leads to great difficulty in
searching and disposing the weapons. So far, most of the abandoned chemical
weapons are found by chance in the process of construction or while dredging
riverway. Along with the more infrastructure construction and the expansion of
urban scale, it is quite possible to find new abandoned chemical weapons and new
abandoning sites. This poses a direct threat to the health of people and safety
of the life and property, and the ecology as well. Therefore, how to eradicate
the ghost is a pressing question.
In fact, since 1995, China and Japan has conducted more than 40 joint
investigations on the abandoned chemical weapons in China. But the task
progresses too slow and the toxic gas and shell still pose great threat to the
life and safety of the Chinese. As the costly task consumes countless manpower,
whether the objective of eradicating 700, 000 toxic gas and shell by 2007 can be
realized as scheduled is still hard to say.
Eradicating the threat caused by abandoned chemical weapons is the common
wishes of not only the Chinese people, but peace and life-loving people all over
the world. We hope, with the common effort, the tragedy such as "August 4" will
not happen again and the ghost of chemical weapon can be eradicated forever.
By Lin Jingyu and Ying Xiangyu
(December 2, PLA Daily)