American WWII bomb explodes at Japanese airport, leaving crater on taxiway

TOKYO– An unexploded American 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, Japanese officials said.

No one was injured and no planes were nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki airport in southwest Japan, officials with the Ministry of Land and Transport said.

An investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500-pound US bomb and that there was no further danger. Authorities were determining 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 were canceled at the airport as of mid-afternoon Wednesday.

The airport said damage to the taxiway was repaired overnight and flights resumed Thursday morning.

Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a former Imperial Japanese Navy pilot training ground, from which some 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.