Okunoshima

In Japan, near the city of Takehara, is the island of Okunoshima, better known as the "Island of Rabbits" due to the large number of rabbits. They are not afraid of anything and several times exceed the number of people living in the island.

In Okunoshima, life flowed calmly for a long time until the Japanese-Chinese war of 1894 began, when in a short time 10 forts were erected around the island because of its favorable strategic position. This subsequently influenced the decision to build a chemical weapons factory on the island. Since Japanese intelligence reported that Europe and the United States are developing chemical weapons with might and main. Although the Geneva Protocol was signed in 1925 prohibiting countries of participants from using asphyxiating, poisonous gases and bacteriological weapons in war, but did not prohibit their production.

The construction was carried out in strict 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. At the end of World War II, the Americans burned the plant and all the documentation associated with it, also buried chemical weapons. Hence one of the versions of the appearance of rabbits on the island, according to which they were used to conduct experiments. But this version is refuted by the director of the Museum of Poisoning Substances, based on the ruins of the plant. In his opinion, all animals died in the destruction of the plant. According to another version of rabbits, schoolchildren brought 8 in the amount of 8 in Okunoshima.

It is not known which version is more true, but rabbits feel free here and now they can be found everywhere on an island of about 700 m². Authorities forbade tourists to bring cats and dogs to the island. In total, there are about three hundred arrogant rabbits on the island, surrounding and jumping for the sake of kneeling visitors. At a local hotel, you can buy food for rabbits for $ 1 or bring cabbage or carrot with you.

When traveling around the island, caution should be exercised, because on the island around the remains of chemical laboratories into which entry is prohibited. According to rumors on Okunoshima, there are several burials of chemical weapons. In 1988, a chemical weapons museum was opened on the island to talk about the possible horrors of a chemical war.