Japan and China on Wednesday began jointly removing poison gas shells abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II in Beian, Heilongjiang Province.
A total of 75 Japanese and 200 Chinese will remove an estimated 500 shells over two weeks, a Japanese government official said.
The team unearthed 51 shells Wednesday, the official said, adding that all 10 shells that experts examined were confirmed as chemical weapons.
Three of the 10 were what the Imperial Japanese Army called "kii," meaning yellow, which contain mustard gas. The remaining seven contained chemical substances that induced nausea, called "aka," meaning red.