The Japanese authorities temporarily evacuated this Sunday 1,400 people from Naha Island (southwest) before the beginning of the process to remove an unexploded bomb from the Battle of Okinawa, which pitted Japan and the United States during World War II.
According to the criteria of
The explosive was found during sewer works in a residential area of Naha (capital of Okinawa Prefecture) last December, according to authorities.
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces (Army) believe that the objectThis is a 250 kilogram bomb launched from a US military aircraft.
Naha authorities asked about 1,400 people within a 280-meter radius of the buried bomb to temporarily evacuate the area starting at 8:50 local time on Sunday (23:50 GMT on Saturday).
Among the evacuees are both residents and hotel employees and guests, for whom three evacuation centers were set up.
The Battle of Okinawa was the only land invasion of the United States in Japan during World War II and was one of the bloodiest of the war, with more than 200,000 deaths, half of them civilians.
It is estimated that some 200,000 tons of ammunition, 10,000 of which did not explode.
In March 1974, a landmine buried by the Imperial Japanese Army (lived from 1867 to 1945) exploded near a kindergarten in the city of Naha, which ended the lives of four people, including a three-year-old girl, and 34 others were injured.
Three months later, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces established a unit specialized in deactivation of unexploded bombs with the aim of removing its entirety, something that could take up to another 100 years, according to experts in the field.
In 2025 the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, which took place a few months before the total surrender of the Asian country and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The bloody confrontation lasted three months and cost the lives of one in four Okinawans.about 94,000 in total.
EFE AGENCY
#people #evacuated #Japan #remove #bomb #Battle #Okinawa