TOKYO
Large stashes of chemical weapons abandoned at the end of World War
II and left unwatched in dozens of locations around Japan pose a far more
serious threat to residents than previously thought, according to a government
study released Friday.
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Stockpiles of the weapons were abandoned in nearly 140 locations, including
several Tokyo suburbs and other major cities, and may have contaminated soil
or water in at least 41, according to the Environment Agency study.
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"We have to take appropriate measures," the chief cabinet secretary, Yasuo
Fukuda, said after the study was announced. "The related agencies will come
up with measures quickly."
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He did not give any details, however.
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The survey was conducted, following several poisoning incidents earlier this
year, to re-examine the findings of a similar report issued 30 years ago.
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In the most serious poisoning incident, almost 20 residents of Kamisu, near
Tokyo, developed health problems after drinking well water contaminated by
arsenic believed to have leaked from an abandoned military stockpile. The
town had a military airfield and research lab at which chemical weapons are
believed to have been stored, officials said.
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Last year, about a dozen construction workers fell sick after they stumbled
upon beer bottles containing poison gas at the site of a former navy chemical
weapons factory near Tokyo.
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In the previous national survey, in 1973, the agency said Japan had stored
3,875 tons of chemical weapons in 18 stockpiles, and dumped them in eight
locations around Japanese shores after the war on orders from U.S. occupation
forces.
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The report said officials then knew of no other locations where chemical
weapons were stored or dumped. Japan has said the disposal was a military
secret and that many documents on its chemical warfare were destroyed when
the war ended.
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But on Friday, the agency said it now believes chemical weapons were stored
and dumped at more than twice as many locations as previously thought. It
called for further water and soil sampling to determine contamination levels.
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Experts estimate Japan produced about 7,000 tons of chemical weapons during
the war - mainly mustard gas and lewisite, an arsenic-based blistering fluid
- and traces have been found intermittently around the country.
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