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The bombing happened 77 years ago...
US cargo ships had poison gas...
I had no idea that this disaster led to the development of chemotherapy...
Poison gas was not used by Germans and Allies during WW 2...
Japan used poison gas in China... Of course, Japan did the biological weapon research in Manchuria...
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Both Japan and Germany used poison gas on their captives.
Here we are 3/4 of a century later and still learning things about WWII. What a massive human endeavor. It is mind bending to me that so much went on in so many places, obscure corners of the world.
One of my current fascinations is the forward PT and Submarine bases of East Indonesia. Thousands of men fought there in what is still relative obscurity. After the war the fleets of PT boats were assembled and burned in remote coves of the islands.
The Japanese soldiers had CYANIC GAS GRENADES on some of the Pacific Islands but did not use them. I’ve found scattered documents at the National Archives, College Park, Md, that talked about them and had a few photos of these glass-globe cyanide grenades.
They should be in Record Group 175 - Chemical Warfare Service records. My father was in the CWS, helping test the 4.2 Chemical (WP) mortar at Edgewood Arsenal/Aberdeen Proving Group. He also worked on gas mask preparations. If the Japanese had used gas warfare during the last few months of the Pacific campaigns, he would have been sent to Australia to help supervise the stockpiling of our own gases, usually Mustard, to be used in retaliation.
Fortunately gas was not used by any side.
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