Japanese officials said that the unexploded bomb was buried underground at Miyazaki Airport, southwest of the country.
According to officials, there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded.
The Civil Defense Forces and police opened an investigation, confirming that the explosion was caused by an American bomb weighing 500 pounds (about 226 kilograms), stressing that “there was no danger.”
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the sudden bomb explosion.
A video clip recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the explosion, throwing pieces of asphalt into the air.
Other clips broadcast on Japanese television also showed a hole in the runway, about 7 meters in diameter and about a meter deep.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that more than 80 flights were canceled at the airport, amid expectations that its operations will resume Thursday.
Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a training field for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and some “kamikaze” were launched from it, a term given to Japanese pilots who were launching suicide attacks on American ships.
Japanese Defense Ministry officials said that in previous times, a number of unexploded bombs dropped by the US Army during World War II were found in the area.
Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried across Japan, sometimes recovered from construction sites.
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