Bombs Still Lie Around Japan

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30055, 13 February 1963, Page 6

Bombs Still Lie Around Japan

(N If A -Hooter) TOKYO. Japan is still dotted with dangerous bombs which have been left over from World War 11. Tokyo residents were recently surprised when a high-explosive bomb was uncovered in a construction site in Shin-juku, one of the busiest areas in Tokyo. Demolition experts found the 4501 b bomb a dud.

Another bomb, weighing one ton. scared residents in public apartments tn Akabane, a district of Tokyo, last year. The bomb was lying in the ground only 3ft from the apartment building. Even the Imperia! Family was not safe. Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko moved into .their new residence in Tokyo in 19®) Workmen clearing a pond in the residence came across 20 fire bombs They were immediately removed. In the Imperial Palace, several fire bombs were discovered a few years ago. A Japanese self-defence force bomb-disposal squad stationed in Tokyo said it believed these bombs had been dropped by United States bombers over Tokyo during the war. The squad has the task of disposing of bombs in Tokyo and neighbouring prefectures—Kanagawa, Chiba, Shizuoka, Saitama, Ibaraki and Yarnsnashi. 15 Tons In Tokyo Lieutenant-Colonel .Yoshitani Shizuno, leader of the squad, said his 15-man team had already disposed of more than 15 tons of bombs in the Tokyo area this year. He said more than 1000 bombs and other explosives weighing more than 200 tons were removed by the Japanese selfdefence force throughout the

country last year. They ranged from machine-gun bullets, hand grenades, uid fire bombs to block-bus . rs. He said: “Most of them are still dangerous They are like new when the mud is scraped off" About 95 per cent, of the block-busters so far unearthed were believed to have been dropped by United States aircraft- Almost all the fire bombs were also identified as American. Others were believed to have been buried by the now defunct Japanese Imperia) Forces at the close of the war Construction in Areas The current construction boom in these areas has given the disposal group more and more "business." The squad had removed about 97 tons in Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures after taking over the task in 1958 from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Some of the bombs are dismantled in Tokyo, or dumped into the sea. Others, if too large or too dangerous, ate taken to the foot of Mount Fuji and detonated in the Defence Force's Training Area. Lieutenant-Colonel Shizuno estimated that 800 tons of bombs were still buried on Japan's southernmost island of Yushu. He said in Tokyo's adjacent prefectures the tonnage of explosives was not known.