American WWII bomb explodes at Japanese airport

An unexploded U.S. World War II bomb buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights but no injuries, Japanese officials said.
Ministry of Land and Transportation officials said there were no planes nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki airport in southwest Japan, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities said an investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500-pound U.S. bomb and that there was no further danger. They were trying to determine the cause of its sudden detonation.
Video recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the explosion spewing chunks of asphalt into the air like a fountain. Videos broadcast on Japanese television showed a crater in the traffic lane, approximately 7 meters in diameter and 1 meter deep.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said more than 80 flights had been canceled at the airport, which hopes to resume operations Thursday morning.
Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a former Imperial Japanese Navy pilot training ground, from which some kamikaze pilots took off on suicide bombing missions.
A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. military during World War II have been discovered in the area, Defense Department officials said.
Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried in Japan and are sometimes unearthed at construction sites.