Two war veterans from Japan have agreed to travel to the mainland to help track down chemical weapons buried in Heilongjiang province by the retreating imperial army.
The independent initiative has been organised by lawyers in China and Japan and marks the first time such assistance has been offered.
The two men, aged 82 and 83, will arrive at the end of the month to assist lawyers and People's Liberation Army soldiers searching for chemical weapons in Dongqing county.
Su Xiangxiang, a lawyer representing victims of chemical weapons accidents, says the initiative is a major breakthrough.
'The Japanese government has not been forthcoming with information about the exact location of the dumps,' he said. 'The information these men can provide could prove invaluable.'
In early September, a delegation of Japanese government officials and military experts was sent to Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, to dispose of 52 abandoned barrels of toxic chemicals. But so far, no war veterans have been involved in the effort to locate the discarded weapons.