The Bombs Are Still There

I’ve been trying for two years to answer a “Question Worth Considering” about the current status of the toxic chemical bombs which the US 760th Chemical Depot Company abandoned in New Guinea at the end of WWII. The long-secret Organizational History Reports provided details about what they left behind, and photos from the 1950s and 1970s provided evidence the bombs were still there (and still contained toxic gases) 25 years after the war ended. By now, another 50 years have passed, and I sincerely hoped the sites had been remediated by the nation which abandoned them.

I am deeply grateful to Basil Tindeba Emimie for taking this question seriously and for having the skill and tenacity to search for clear, honest answers. He has shared several current photos which show the bombs are still there in at least two separate locations. His photos are a call for action which I hope will soon lead to results.

As I’ve blogged before, during WWII the US 760th Chemical Depot Company (Aviation) operated a very large chemical weapons depot, first in Australia and later in New Guinea. The soldiers of the 760th followed orders. They did their best to maintain 30,000 bombs filled with mustard agent, lewisite, phosgene, hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride in a state of readiness to retaliate if Japan had initiated chemical warfare in the South West Pacific. It was difficult and dangerous work, particularly when the newest and most toxic of their chemical weapons—cyanogen chloride or “CK”—sometimes “polymerized” and ruptured the bomb casings without warning. The soldiers also obeyed orders when they were told in June 1945 to move north for a new assignment and to leave their chemical bombs behind. Two of their final actions before departing were “300 CK bombs moved to a new location” and “200 CK bombs destroyed.”

It is impossible to tell from a photo precisely what these old bombs contain. It is impossible to know with certainty what would happen to nearby people if one of these bombs ruptures or explodes. It IS POSSIBLE to know with absolute certainty that the nation which abandoned these bombs has a responsibility to ensure they do not pose an ongoing threat.