China demands Japan destroy WW2 chemical weapons

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/October/theworld_October380.xml§ion=theworld&col=

BEIJING - China demanded on Thursday that Japan destroy about 2 million chemical weapons abandoned by the retreating Japanese Imperial Army at the end of World War Two.

China has complained that Japan has been slow in clearing up the weapons buried or discarded by the Japanese after the war ended in 1945. China says some 2,000 Chinese have been harmed by such weapons.

“The Chinese side strongly demands the Japanese side bear its due responsibility and obligation,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei as saying.

He urged Japan “to thoroughly and completely destroy chemical weapons abandoned in China” as soon as possible.

[Kagemusha]

1. My sympathies but, the weapons are not on Japanese territory.

They really think that in this environment that Japanese military authorities want to be on Chinese soil?

[NNN0LHI]

2. I don't know much about this issue but would the environment have been...

...friendlier if Japan had removed and destroyed these abandoned weapons perhaps several decades ago? I don't know if China was making a big deal out of it back then or not? Or if Japan has been dragging its feet? Is this a fairly recent request by China? The weapons might even have been recently discovered? I don't know?

Don