Japan apologises for China gas leak deaths
Japan’s government apologised today for an accident in which three people in Southern China inhaled poison gas from decaying chemical weapons abandoned by Japan’s former Imperial army.
Earlier today, the Japanese Foreign Ministry admitted chemicals leaking from Second World War Japanese shells were responsible for the three people becoming sick in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said: “It is extremely regrettable we have caused the accident. We sincerely extend our sympathy to the victims.”
A team of experts had reached their conclusion after surveying the site where last Thursday the three people inhaled the toxic fumes while collecting sand on a river bank. The three were treated in hospital.
Hosoda reiterated Japan’s pledge to dispose of all chemical weapons discarded by its wartime military as soon as possible.
Japan’s army controlled China’s north-east for a decade before its Second World War defeat, and its army left behind about 700,000 chemical weapons – a lingering source of resentment for many Chinese. Beijing says abandoned weapons have killed at least 2,000 Chinese since 1945.
Under a 1997 international convention, Japan is obliged to finish cleaning them up by 2007. So far, only 37,000 of them have been dug up and treated, officials said.
Earlier this month, Tokyo pledged to speed up the process, saying it would build a factory to dispose of weapons in China’s north-eastern Jilin Province, where most of the abandoned weapons are buried untreated.
The disposal of the weapons is one of many sore points between the two nations, which are also bickering over territorial issues, gas exploration rights and Japan’s bid for a UN Security Council permanent seat.
