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Delegate: Natsumi Miyazawa
Country: Japan
Topic: Chemical Weapons
Committee: Security Council
In the past, few countries had used harmful chemical weapons and this issue still exists
today; some countries still possess these weapons and no one can predict why, when, or where
they would use them in the future. Chemical weapons are violent arms of chemical substances
such as sarin and chlorine that were developed to harm living things. This harmful substance was
used in three wars: in World War I, Vietnam War, and Iran-Iraq War. Allies and Central Powers
and used the first chemical weapon, chlorine and phosgene, and took 90 millions of lives during
the World War I. Germans tested the effectiveness of the poisonous chlorine gas by releasing it
and took 5,000 French-Algerian soldiers’ lives. During Vietnam War, USA used Agent Orange
to prevent the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong to use forests for their food sources. This
weapon killed around 4,000,000 people. Haljaba was attacked by Iraq government with chemical
gases of sarin and mustard gas and took lives of over 100,000 people including children. This
was the first time that the chemical weapon was used to harm a country’s own people. The
United Nation (UN) had come up with solutions to this issue; several of them agreed the idea to
send weapon inspectors and officials to nations that might use chemical weapons. UN says that
they might need to use military power against the country that broke a law or violating with the
use of chemical weapons.
The stockpile and dumped chemical weapons still remain a main concern in Japan. Our
nation began investigating and researching the chemical weapon in 1914 influenced by
developed European countries. This led Japan to establish over 15 factories and laboratories to
develop the violent arms. Ordered by the Japanese Emperor Hiroto himself, Japanese troops fired
chemical weapons against the Chinese troops for the first time in 1937 during World War II. The
Japanese Army launched 1000 mustard gas shells against the Chinese army; 1600 out of 3000
Chinese soldiers were affected. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan stored the chemical
weapons in Mainland China to have an access to them whenever they needed them. On
September 9, 1945 the war between the two nations ended, however Japan’s chemical weapon,
mustard gas, is still abandoned in China today. Japan and the Allied Forces dumped the chemical
weapons into the water right after the end of the World War II. This was mainly ordered by the
U.S. Army because it was the safest way to deposit them. However, this selection made Japan
remorseful on what we have done. More than 820 chemical weapons were discovered in the
water. In the past 65 years, more than ten civilians died and more than 400 civilians suffered
serious injuries and illness because of the chemical weapons in the water. We, Japan, had
developed and stockpiled dangerous chemical weapons in the past, but we determined that the
use of chemical weapons is an unsuitable way of defending our people after pondering about
what we have done.
Our nation, Japan, faces a demanding issue and had come up with an effective solution
to this. Japan signed up Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993 and made a decision to dispose
the abandoned chemical weapons in China by 2022. After many years of negotiations, Japan
started to take an action in June 1999 by paying and providing necessary technologies, facilities,
experts, and funds. The first removal of the abandoned chemical weapons was established in
September 2010. On April 28th, 2009, Japanese Ministry of Environment declared that they have
the responsibility of the dumped chemical weapons. However it is still unclear how to dispose
them in a secure way. We, Japan, take this issue as a main concern and are attempting to dispose
our abandoned and dumped chemical weapons as immediately as possible, yet further
investigation about the strategy would be necessary.
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