Report: Japan won’t use military to deliver aid

updated 8:49 p.m. ET May 29, 2008

CHENGDU, China - Japan has decided not to send its military to deliver relief goods to quake-hit China after Beijing voiced uneasiness over the mission, local reports said Friday.

Beijing was in talks with Tokyo about the sensitive issue of using Japan's military to deliver tents and blankets to quake survivors, which could have become the first significant military dispatch between the two nations since World War II.

But the two sides failed to hammer out details of the dispatch as the Chinese government expressed uneasiness over the mission using Japanese air force planes, Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri said, quoting government sources.

Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of it in the 1930s before being defeated by the Allies in 1945, and many Chinese still strongly resent Japan for its military aggression.

Many Chinese opposed to relief mission
Japan's major daily Asahi said the Chinese government was concerned about domestic public opinions as many Chinese posted comments opposing the mission on Web sites.

Instead of sending military planes, Japan is now considering using private charter planes to deliver relief goods to China.

Since World War II, Japan has sent only a small group of defense experts to China to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops.

Though postwar relations between China and Japan have been rocky, the countries have grown closer in the past 18 months.

Chinese President Hu Jintao made a successful five-day visit to Japan at the beginning of May, the first by a Chinese president in 10 years.

During the trip, Hu urged Beijing and Tokyo to put their bitter wartime history behind them and proposed a broad partnership.

Japan was also the first foreign nation that China turned to for help after the earthquake, which has killed nearly 70,000 people and left millions homeless.

Tokyo sent a 60-member civilian emergency rescue team days after the quake struck, followed by a medical team last week.

Heavy rain, chemical fire add to challenges
Meanwhile, heavy rain and a chemical fire hampered urgent recovery efforts on Thursday in an earthquake-shattered town threatened by a rising lake.

State television reported that a stockpile of bleach used to disinfect quake ruins ignited in a storage building, creating heavy fumes and injuring 61 soldiers. Footage showed smoke billowing over the town of Beichuan. Troops were spraying the building and several were gasping for air and being treated by medics.

"The soldiers have inhaled the fumes. It has affected their bodies and they are in the military hospital now," said a soldier identified by CCTV as the leader of the fire crew. His name was not given.

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