The Ruins of a Japanese Poison Gas Shell Production Base Expose the Japanese Army's History of Chemical Warfare
The History of Chemical Weapons of the Japanese Army's Invasion of China: Kazuaki Harada Visits the Sonede Manufacturing Site Ruins Tracing the chain of poison gas shell production and transport to China, confronting the cost of war and the warning of history
Japanese scholar Harada Kazuaki has long investigated the history of the production and use of chemical weapons by the invading Japanese army in China. Recently, he led a reporter from the China Media Group to visit the ruins of the Sone Manufacturing Works in Kitakyushu, Japan, and traced the process by which Japan massproduced poison gas shells during World War II and transported them to China.
The report shows that the Sone Manufacturing Works once produced chemical weapons such as mustard gas, lewisite, and diphenylchloroarsine, and more than 1 million poison gas shells were filled between 1938 and 1944. Harada Kazuaki pointed out that, relying on the industrial and military system of that time, this place formed a chemical weapons production chain from research and development to production and then transportation.
Harada Kazuaki believes that preserving such ruins helps future generations visually see the battlefield and reflect on the costs of aggression and war from history. He said that he hopes to draw lessons from studying this history to provide inspiration for thinking about how to avoid war.