60 years after WWII battle, Okinawa's unexploded bombs
ITOMAN, Okinawa, Japan -- Under a blazing mid-afternoon sun, 1st Lt. Toshikazu Nakano squats in a muddy pit at the edge of a housing development and brushes rocks away from a shiny metal object lodged firmly in the ground. He stops for a moment and barks orders to the rest of his team.
"This one might explode," he yells. "Everyone take cover."
Like former battlefields all over the world, the southern Japan island of Okinawa - home to more than one million people and the site of some of the Second World War's most savage fighting - is a tinderbox of unexploded bombs, thousands and thousands of tonnes of them, rusted and often half buried.
Read entire article at AP (& White House press release)
"This one might explode," he yells. "Everyone take cover."
Like former battlefields all over the world, the southern Japan island of Okinawa - home to more than one million people and the site of some of the Second World War's most savage fighting - is a tinderbox of unexploded bombs, thousands and thousands of tonnes of them, rusted and often half buried.