Bunnies Frolic on Japan’s Old Chem Weapons Site

Back when Japan was a rapacious imperial power, a small island near Hiroshima was a nerve center of its chemical weapons efforts. But if there are any toxic chemical agents still on Okunoshima, they’ve been buried under hundreds of pounds of cuteness.

Approximately 300 rabbits are the main inhabitants of the four-kilometer Okunoshima Island, where abandoned factories are all that remain of the once-deadly World War II-era weapons program. A nearby elementary school needed to abandon its furry friends in 1971, and the abandoned Okunoshima became the habitat of last resort. Thirty years later, the rabbit-packed island is now a tourist destination: “The rabbits became popular for their adorable gesture asking for food,” reports the Manichi Daily News.
Japan maintained an extensive chemical arsenal during its 20-year experiment in Asian conquest in the last century, including mustard gas, phosgene, and hydrogen cyanide. Between 1937 and 1945, Japan is believed to have launched at least 889 chemical attacks during its occupation of China, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Over 100 tons of Japanese chemical munitions have been destroyed in China since the war ended, and remnants of the attacks occasionally resurface, as with the 2005 discovery of a chemical test-site in Mongolia that used Chinese prisoners as human guinea pigs.
The wartime effort caused so much shame to Japan that Okunoshima was erased from official maps, according to the paper. But now the island can boast of a far more adorable claim to fame, as the above video shows.