A Japanese war veteran arrived at Zhoujiazhen Town in Harbin,
capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on Monday to
help retrieve chemical weapons buried by the invading Japanese
soldiers before their surrender in World War II.
Yoshida Isao, 81, arrived here Monday morning 60 years after he
left the town as a soldier. He was accompanied by Hase Gawa
Junichi, 69, a member of a non-governmental support
organization.
Yoshida Isao enlisted in the Japanese army at the age of 15 in
1939. He arrived in Harbin for military training in June of the
same year.
He received orders to bury the chemical weapons in August 1945,
shortly before their surrender and retreat.
"We were ordered to throw the gas bombs into water wells. After
I returned to Japan, I led a normal life, but I could not forget
the sounds of the bombs when we threw them into the wells," he
said.
"The sounds have been beating in my heart. I repent what I have
done. I feel I have done wrong to the Chinese people," he said.
"I wrote a letter to the Japanese media telling the public that
there are still gas bombs left in China. I hope the Japanese
government will take action to deal with the matter," he said.
"I've just now heard that most wells have been filled in. What
worries me most is that the bombs will bring more trouble to the
locals. I don't want to see mishaps that might injure civilians
again if they were to accidentally dig up the bombs in
Heilongjiang," he said.
The veteran has been highly praised by the Chinese.
He has bravely spoken out and proved the burial of gas bombs in
China, said Gao Xiaoyan, an expert on Japan with the Heilongjiang
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2006)
