'Rabbit island' a dark outpost of Japan's chemical warfare
Researchers, peace activists work to preserve history of poison gas use, urge Tokyo to acknowledge role as aggressor
A short distance from Hiroshima, in Japan's Seto Inland Sea, lies Okunoshima, a small island where the Imperial Japanese Army once produced poison gas.
More than 80 years ago, during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), the poison gas was sent to China for use as chemical weapons, causing heavy casualties.
Rabbits, the original inhabitants of this island, were also harmed. About 200 were used for poison gas testing and killed after Japan's defeat. Those roaming the island today were introduced later to attract tourists.
The island is now a popular tourist destination known as a "rabbit paradise", and home to roughly 1,000 of the furry mammals.
In stark contrast to the global awareness of the atrocities inflicted by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945, Okunoshima's dark past remains little known.
Japanese researchers and peace activists have called on Japan to move beyond a narrative centered on its own wartime suffering, and confront its history as an aggressor and the pain it inflicted on people in China and other Asian countries.
They have also warned that the memory of Japan's wartime aggression risks fading as researchers and volunteer guides grow older.
