'Rabbit island' a dark outpost of Japan's chemical warfare

Need for awareness

Taichi Koseki, a student from Kansai Gaidai University, knew about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima before visiting Okunoshima, but not about the island's history of poison gas production.

Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb Dome is a UNESCO World Heritage site, yet the history of poison gas production on Okunoshima in the same prefecture remains far less widely known.

For Tetsuo Kaneko, a representative of the Hiroshima Council against A — and H-Bombs and a former Diet member who has long been involved in Japan's peace movement, Okunoshima is a symbol of Japan's history as a wartime aggressor.

"Those who inflict harm tend to forget the history, but for the victims, the suffering remains to this day," he said.

In Kaneko's view, Hiroshima's wartime memory should not begin only with the atomic bombing in 1945, but should also confront the suffering Japanese militarism inflicted on people across Asia before then.

His concern comes amid broader questions over how Japan confronts its wartime past as the country strengthens its military capabilities.

At atomic bombing memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan remained firmly committed to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles — non-possession, non-production and non-introduction of nuclear weapons — but stopped short of explicitly pledging to uphold them in the future.

On Aug 15, the 81st anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, she pledged not to repeat the devastation of war, but made no reference to Japan's responsibility for the war.

Kaneko is concerned that awareness of Japan's wartime aggression is fading amid these changes.