Okunoshima

In Japan, Okunoshima Island is located near the city of Takehara, better known as "Rabbit Island" because of the large number of rabbits. They are not afraid of anything and are several times more numerous than the people inhabiting the island.

Life in Okunoshima was peaceful for a long time, until the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 began, when 10 forts were built around the island in a short time due to its advantageous strategic position. This subsequently influenced the decision to build a chemical weapons production plant on the island. Because Japanese intelligence reported that Europe and the United States were actively developing chemical weapons. Although the Geneva Protocol was signed in 1925 prohibiting the participating countries from using suffocating, poisonous gases and bacteriological weapons in war, it did not prohibit their production.

The construction was carried out in the strictest secrecy, the island was removed from the maps, and the workers and residents of the island did not know what was actually being built on the island. After the end of World War II, the Americans burned down the plant and all the documentation related to it, and also buried chemical weapons. Hence one of the versions of the appearance of rabbits on the island, according to which they were used for experiments. But this version is refuted by the director of the Museum of Toxic Substances, based on the ruins of the factory. In his opinion, all the animals died during the destruction of the plant. According to another version, 8 rabbits were brought to Okunoshima by schoolchildren in 1971.

It is not known which version is more true, but rabbits feel at ease here and now they can be found everywhere on the island with an area of about 700 ^m2. The authorities have banned tourists from bringing cats and dogs to the island. There are about three hundred brazen rabbits on the island, surrounding and jumping on visitors' laps for treats. You can buy $1 worth of rabbit food at a local hotel or bring cabbage or carrots with you.

When traveling around the island, you should be careful, because there are remnants of chemical laboratories all around the island, which are prohibited from entering. According to rumors, there are several chemical weapons burials on Okunoshima. In 1988, a chemical weapons museum was opened on the island to tell about the possible horrors of chemical warfare.