We came close to tragedy on Wednesday at Miyazaki airport on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Less than a minute after a passing airliner, an American World War II bomb suddenly exploded at the airport, which served as a base for suicide bombers at the end of the war. Images broadcast by Japanese media show a plume of earth rising around ten meters into the air. The explosion, which caused no injuries, caused a crater several meters in diameter in the tarmac.
After investigation, the Japanese Army Self-Defense Forces’ bomb disposal team concluded that it was a “250 kg American-made bomb”, a spokesperson said. Dozens of flights were canceled following the explosion, affecting more than 3,400 passengers. Everything returned to normal this Thursday with the resumption of flights at Miyazaki airport.
Thousands of unexploded bombs in the country
It was in this same airport that other unexploded American munitions were found in 2011 and 2021 as well as on a nearby construction site in 2009. Before dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed 214,000 people there. in August 1945, the U.S. military also heavily bombed dozens of other Japanese cities and sites deemed strategic. These bombings left hundreds of thousands dead, including around 100,000 in Tokyo in a single night in March 1945.
Over a 12-month period ending last April, the Japanese military safely removed 2,348 unexploded ordnance items, including 441 in the southern island department of Okinawa, according to the Self-Defense Forces.
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