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{{Short description|Japanese chemical weapons facility}}
{{Weapons of mass destruction}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2022}}
'''Unit 516''' (第五一六部隊) was a top secret Japanese [[chemical weapon]]s facility, operated by the [[Kempeitai]], in [[Qiqihar]], Japanese-occupied [[northeast China]]. The name Unit 516 was a code name ([[Tsūshōgō]]) of the Unit. It was officially called the [[Kwantung Army]] '''Chemical Weapons Section''' and operated underneath [[Unit 731]].<ref>Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003</ref>

An estimated 700,000 (Japanese estimation) to 2,000,000 (Chinese estimation) Japanese-produced chemical weapons were buried in China. Until 1995, Japan had refused to acknowledge that it dumped chemical weapons in the [[Nen River]] between [[Heilongjiang]] and [[Hulunbei'er]], leaving huge amounts behind.

==Chemical weapons==
* [[Phosgene]]
* [[Hydrogen cyanide]]
* [[Bromobenzyl cyanide]] and [[Chloroacetophenone]]
* [[Diphenylcyanoarsine]] and [[Diphenylchloroarsine]]
* [[Arsenic trichloride]]
* [[Sulfur Mustard]]
* [[Lewisite]]

At the end of [[World War II]], the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] buried some of their chemical weapons in China, but most were confiscated by Soviet [[Red Army]], the [[People's Liberation Army]] and the [[Republic of China Army|Kuomintang Army]], along with other weapons. The [[Soviet Union]] later handed over these weapons to [[Republic of China|China (ROC)]], who then buried them. Japanese chemical weapons were later found mixed with Soviet and Chinese chemical weapons.

The [https://web.archive.org/web/20041209033919/http://www.nids.go.jp/english/index.html Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies] has a record of Japanese weapons confiscated by Kuomintang Army along with a list of the types of  chemical weapons. No confiscation records about ROC / Russia have been found. However, no country has records about the locations of the buried chemical weapons. China has started gathering these abandoned weapons for destruction and burial, and they are currently buried in remote [[Dunhua]] County, in [[Haerbaling]], [[Jilin]] (吉林) province.

==The Chemical Weapons Convention==
One of the focuses of the [[Chemical Weapons Convention]] was to assign responsibility for the destruction of old chemical weapons in China. The convention was signed in 1993 and according to it, all chemical weapons created after 1925 must be destroyed by the originating-country. Under the convention, Japan is building a factory in China to destroy chemical weapons.

==See also==
* [[Changde chemical weapon attack]]
* [[War crimes in Manchukuo]]
* [[Japan and weapons of mass destruction]]

===Other cases of abandoned chemical weapons===
* [[Air raid on Bari]]
* [[San Jose Project]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{IJA special research units}}

<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Chemical warfare facilities]]
[[Category:Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps]]
[[Category:Japanese human subject research]]
[[Category:Second Sino-Japanese War]]
[[Category:War crimes in the Second Sino-Japanese War]]
[[Category:Japanese war crimes in China]]
[[Category:War crimes in Manchukuo]]