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Agence France-Presse

Associated Press

An explosion injured four men at a Japanese facility for storing unexploded bombs at a US airbase in Okinawa on Monday, a fire official said, with their condition reportedly not critical.
Japan Self-Defence Forces (SDF) members at the facility at Kadena Air Base were trying to wipe rust off items to reassess if they were bombs, Akira Kamiunten said.
During that process, there was an explosion that injured four male SDF members who were rushed to hospital, he said.
Jiji Press and other local media said the soldiers suffered finger injuries that were not life threatening.

A defence ministry spokesman also confirmed reports of an explosion at Kadena Air Base.
The SDF said they are trying to confirm the cause of the accident and where it occurred.
The US Air Force said no US service members were involved.
During World War II, Japan used Okinawa as a buffer to slow US forces.
More than a quarter of the main island’s civilian population died in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
US occupation only ended there in 1972, under a mutual treaty that left American bases in place.

Today, Okinawa contains 70 per cent of the land used for US bases in Japan, and more than half of the 50,000-strong US troop presence.
Hundreds of tons of unexploded wartime bombs, many of them dropped by the US military, remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites and elsewhere.
In October, an unexploded wartime US bomb exploded at a commercial airport in southern Japan, causing a large crater and suspending dozens of flights.


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Four soldiers suffered injuries to their fingers while working at a US airbase that stores unexploded bombs


Four soldiers suffered injuries to their fingers while working at a US airbase that stores unexploded bombs.


Defence

Diaoyu Islands

US-Japan relations

Diplomacy