Till June 21, a total of 223 chemical bombs dropped by the Japanese invaders during World War II have been discovered in Touzhan Village in the suburbs of northeastern China's Qiqihar. Most of the cannonballs are toxic chemical bombs.

According to Chinese experts, until June 22, they have found four kinds of toxic chemical bombs, including the models of 75, 90, 105 and 150. The bombs they have dug up are all warheads with chemical agent. They haven't found any fully armed bomb.

Most chemical weapons dug up in Touzhan Village are weapons with mustard gas and the mixture of diphenylchloroarsine and diphenylcyanoarsine. These two kinds of chemical bombs were the main chemical weapons used by Japanese troops during World War II. The majority of them were dropped in the three northeastern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

The Japanese invaders left not only chemical bombs but also chemical agents in bulk in China, including mustard gas, lewisite, diphenylcyanoarsine, diphenylchloroarsine, chloroacetophenone, phosgene, and hydrocyanic acid.

Bu Ping, an expert of Japan Study with the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said that different chemical agents bring varied harms to people's health. Victims in China were mainly hurt by vesicant-type chemical agent, which may bring serious injuries to the victim. Due to the lack of knowledge on chemical weapons, Chinese civilians often couldn't explain what had happened after being hit by chemical weapons.

Experts said that mustard gas was the murderer of last year' August 4 incident that killed one man and injured 43 in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province.

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan June 24, 2004)