Tokyo (AP) – An explosion on a storage site for unploded ammunition in an American military base on the southern Okinawa island in Okinawa injured four Japanese soldiers, although injuries do not put their lives in danger, officials announced on Monday.
The four soldiers underwent injuries to the fingers while working in an establishment which belongs to the prefecture of Okinawa and temporarily stores unplodced ammunition, mainly in wartime and found on the island, said local officials. One of the hardest battles of the Second World War was waged on Okinawa.
Prefecture officials said injuries did not threaten their life, but no other detail was immediately known.
The US Air Force said in a press release that the explosion occurred inside the installation managed by the prefectural government of Okinawa in the Kadena air base storage area. He said no American service was involved in the incident.
The joint staff of the self -defense force said that one of the ammunition suddenly exploded when the soldiers inspected him in the establishment. The explosion occurred when the soldiers were trying to remove the rust to examine the details of the unplodced order, NHK Television reported.
The homeless said that they were trying to confirm what caused the accident.
Hundreds of tonnes of unplodced wartime bombs, many of which have fallen by the US military, remain buried in Japan and are sometimes unearthed on construction sites and elsewhere. Many of them are still on Okinawa, where about 1,856 tonnes of unplodced American bombs would remain.
In October, an American bomb not exploded in wartime exploded in a commercial airport in southern Japan, causing a large crater and suspended from dozens of flights.
