WWII American bomb explodes at a Japanese airfield

TOKYO (AP) — An unexploded World War II U.S. bomb buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, leaving a large crater in a taxiway and canceling more than 80 flights, Japanese officials said.

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

An investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500-pound American bomb and that there was no further danger. Officials were determining what caused the sudden explosion.

Video recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the blast spewing chunks of asphalt into the air like a fountain. Videos broadcast on Japanese television showed a crater in the taxiway, reportedly about 7 meters in diameter and 90 cm deep.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said more than 80 flights had been canceled at the airport as of Wednesday afternoon.

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 flight training field, from which some pilots took off for suicide bombings.

A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. military during World War II have been unearthed in the area, Defense Department officials said.

Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war are still buried around Japan and sometimes dug up at construction sites.