Four injured in explosion at US air base in Japan’s Okinawa
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A 2023 file photo of F-15 jets at Naha airbase, Okinawa. US occupation ended in Okinawa in 1972, under a mutual treaty that left American bases in place.
PHOTO: NAHA_AIRBASE/X
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Tokyo – An explosion injured four men at a Japanese facility for storing unexploded bombs at a US airbase in Okinawa on June 9, 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 stored there to reassess if they were bombs, said local fire department official Akira Kamiunten.
During that process there was an explosion that injured four male SDF members, who were rushed to hospital, he told AFP.
Jiji Press and other local media outlets said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
A Defence Ministry spokesman also confirmed reports of an explosion at Kadena Air Base, located on the main island of the southern region of Okinawa.
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 ended there only in 1972, under a mutual treaty that left American bases in place.
Today, 70 per cent of the land used for US bases in Japan is in Okinawa, which also holds more than half of the 50,000-strong US troop presence. AFP
