Eight bombs abandoned by Japanese troops during World War II have been found in the courtyard
of a house in Suifenhe City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, police said on
Wednesday.
The first bomb was identified by patrolling police in a corner
of the courtyard of Li Haichuan's home in Jianxi Village, Funing
Town, on Monday.
It was described as seriously eroded without a fuse, but still
dangerous.
Police immediately sealed off the courtyard and excavated the
courtyard, discovering seven more bombs.
Police believed the bombs were abandoned by Japanese troops
during World War II, as they featured Japanese characters.
The bombs had been transferred to a safe place and sealed.
Suifenhe, bordering Russia, was a major battlefield during the
World War II, and discoveries of dumped ordnance are not
unusual.
On April 8, police in Hulin City, also in Heilongjiang,
announced they had found 25 bombs abandoned by Japanese troops in a
local village.
Chinese official statistics show Japan abandoned at least two
million tons of chemical weapons at about 40 sites in 15 provinces
at the end of World War II, most of which are in the three
northeast provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.
China and Japan joined the United Nations Chemical Weapons
Convention in 1997. Two years later, they signed a memorandum,
under which Japan is obliged to remove weapons by this month and
provide all necessary funds, equipment and personnel for their
retrieval and destruction.
But the Japanese government has asked for an extension of the
disposal deadline to April 2012.
(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2007)