Japanese boys bring WWII bomb to school
JAPAN: Two Japanese boys brought a World War II bomb to class,
flustering teachers on the island of Okinawa which was the scene of the
Pacific conflict's bloodiest battle, the school said Thursday.
The two 12-year-old boys said they found the bomb last week in a yard
near the school in Okinawa, where residents still unearth hundreds of
dud explosives six decades after the war.
"We immediately realised the blasting fuse had come off the
bombshell," said Yoshiyasu Henzan, vice principal of Shonan elementary
school. "We reported it to police through the local education board."
"The children apparently thought the bomb would be good study
material at school," he said, adding that the school has given a special
class in peace studies for students.
The US-made bombshell of about 30 centimetres (12 inches) in length
was swiftly taken away by the Japanese bomb-disposal squad, the teacher
said.
Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific war, with US forces
unleashing an 83-day air and amphibious assault dubbed the "Typhoon of
Steel" by locals. Some 190,000 Japanese died, half of them Okinawan
civilians.
Earlier this month, an Okinawan resident working on an underground
water pipe was severely injured in the face when another World War II
bomb went off.
Tokyo, Thursday, AFP |
