China looking for abandoned World War II chemical weapons (EXCERPT) Thu Sep 5,11:00 AM ET, by GREG BAKER, Associated Press Writer SUNWU COUNTY, China - Covered head to toe in safety suits, Japanese and Chinese chemical-weapons experts starting digging Thursday in a stand of trees surrounded by bean fields in China's northeast in search of abandoned World War II poison gas stocks. The expedition is part of joint efforts to remove chemical weapons left by Japan's Imperial Army after its 13-year occupation of the region ended in 1945. Experts believe the site in Heilongjiang province, part of the area once known as Manchuria, may hold some 500 canisters of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and lewisite, a fluid that emits poisonous vapors. The team didn't find anything Thursday, but work is to continue until Oct. 1, said Ge Guangdiao, deputy director of the Chinese team. Chinese authorities buried the weapons in 1954 after accidents at storage sites elsewhere, Ge said. He wouldn't give any details of accidents or the other storage sites. A stone tablet at the site warns in Chinese that chemical weapons are buried there. Ge wouldn't say whether records were kept of the burial sites, but the lengthy search carried out for the weapons using _meta_l detectors indicated that officials had only a vague idea of where they were. The experts showed reporters four 75 mm artillery shells loaded with mustard gas that were unearthed in April by a Japanese team during a preliminary survey of the area. Another survey took place in July. Two soldiers demonstrated how they would clean and disarm any more shells found, then wrap them in _meta_l foil and put them in sealed wooden boxes. Work began Thursday with speeches by Chinese and Japanese military representatives praising cooperation between the former enemies. A bright sun shone down on the remote site, lying in field of green soybeans surrounded by low, forested hills. Team members then entered a huddle of green military tents to change into safety suits. The Japanese models were rubberized gray and brown with built-in respirators and badges that said Abandoned Chemical Weapons. The Chinese wore simpler suits that didn't appear to close fully and attached their respirators separately. Suited up, they entered a trio of larger tents pitched over the site and worked their way delicately into the rich black soil using picks and shovels. Sandbags were stacked around the _base_ of the tents to guard against leaks and explosions and a surrounding swath of field 50 meters (165 feet) wide was marked off with rope and white paint. Japanese officials say about 700,000 chemical weapons remain in China from the Japanese occupation. Only a few are to be recovered during the expedition in Sunwu county, about 1,440 kilometers (890 miles) northeast of Beijing near the Russian border. The weapons are to be stored temporarily near the city of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang until a permanent disposal site is decided on. Japan's use of chemical and biological weapons during its invasion and occupation of China still stirs anger and resentment among many Chinese, who feel Japan has never fully atoned. Lawyers for Chinese plaintiffs who are suing the Japanese government say leaking chemical weapons have caused some 2,000 deaths since the end of the war. A Japanese court last week acknowledged for the first time the army's use of biological weapons in China, but rejected demands for compensation. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_wo_en_p...