November 2, 2026

During Japan's 14-year invasion of China, the Japanese military used chemical weapons on a massive scale. After its defeat, it abandoned large quantities of chemical weapons across China in an attempt to conceal its crimes, posing serious risks to the lives and property of the Chinese people as well as the country's ecological and environmental security. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Japan should have completed its destruction by the end of 2007. Yet, disposal efforts remain seriously behind schedule, and the weapons continue to threaten public safety.

A delegation from Japan's Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, comprising journalists, scholars, lawyers and civic activists, recently visited a burial site containing chemical weapons abandoned by Japan in China. 

They told the Global Times that witnessing the site firsthand had left them deeply shocked, as the danger posed by the weapons far exceeded what they had imagined. They said the fundamental reason Japan has repeatedly failed to fulfill its obligations is that it has not truly reflected on its wartime guilt. 

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https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202611/1373490.shtml