Soldiers Injured As Explosives Rock Japan Island

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News

TOKYO (Worthy News) – An explosion at a storage site for unexploded ordnance at a U.S. military base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa injured four Japanese soldiers, in the first such accident in decades, the military said.

While not life-threatening, the four soldiers sustained finger injuries when working at a facility that belongs to Okinawa prefecture and temporarily stores unexploded ordnance, mostly from wartime and found on the island, according to local officials.

Japanese media reported that the Self-Defense Force’s joint staff said one of the devices suddenly exploded when the soldiers inspected it at the facility. The blast occurred when the soldiers were trying to remove rust.

In a statement, the U.S. Air Force said that the explosion occurred at the facility managed by the Okinawa prefectural government at Kadena Air Base’s munitions storage area. It said no U.S. servicemembers were involved in the incident.

Yet it underscored concerns about hundreds of tons of unexploded wartime bombs, many of them dropped by the U.S. military during World War II, remaining buried around Japan and sometimes dug up at construction sites and elsewhere.

Many of them are still found on Okinawa, where about 1,856 tons of unexploded U.S. bombs are believed to remain, according to experts.

One of the harshest battles of World War II was fought on Okinawa.

In October, an unexploded wartime U.S. bomb exploded at a commercial airport in southern Japan, reportedly causing a large crater and suspending dozens of flights.

Despite the dangers, Monday’s work-relatedaccident was believed to be the first ever since the 1974 launch of the Japanese army’s unexploded ordnance disposal unit.

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