Katharina Buczek
Did you know that off the coast of Japan, there is a sanctuary known as Rabbit Island?
If you are a lover of the furry mammals, this place might sound like heaven! But don’t let the cute name fool you– Rabbit Island is home to a plethora of ominous secrets that continue to threaten the existence of the bunnies today.
Rabbit Island is located on Okunoshima, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea. But, the island is often regarded as Usagi Shima– which means “Rabbit Island” in English– because of its robust bunny population.
In fact, over one thousand wild rabbits call the island home and enjoy roaming through its abundant fields and forests.
But, just how many wild rabbits ended up in the same place is an entirely different story with various dark theories.
The first harks back to World War II when Okunoshima was utilized as a chemical munitions plant in the manufacturing of tear and mustard gas.
Geneva Protocol did ban the use of these weapons in 1925, but a policy loophole still allowed for the creation and storage of the brutal chemicals.
In turn, the theory suggests that these rabbits were brought to the island and used as test subjects to gauge the effectiveness of the chemicals. Then, the remaining rabbits were supposedly released following the end of WWII and left to live on the island.
Nonetheless, a University of California San Diego Japanese politics professor named Elliss Krauss has denied this rumor and revealed that the American soldiers who liberated the island actually euthanized all rabbits used for experimentation.
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