An unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport has exploded, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights but no injuries.
  • @someguy3English
    28•2 months ago

    Here I thought they would rust out (or the powder would get wet) and wouldn’t work after all this time.

    • @Jesus_666English
      50•2 months ago

      Nope, they just become less predictable. Which is why in some parts of Germany you can’t build as much as a garden shed without having EOD check the land first. In the more heavily-bombed areas it’s not unusual to hear on the radio that you’re to avoid downtown today between 10 and 12 because they’re disarming a 500-pound bomb they found during roadwork.

      And yes, the fact that an unstable bomb capable of trashing a city block is mundane nicely illustrates war’s potential to fuck things up for generations.

      Japan might want to get that land under and around the airport checked. There might be some other surprises hidden down there.

    • @JASN_DEEnglish
      36•2 months ago

      Worse, the chemicals inside deteriorate to somewhere between “this detonator is completely trash” and “surprise fireworks”.

    • @MelonpolyEnglish
      11•2 months ago

      They don’t make 'em like they used to

    • Beacon
      4•2 months ago

      I’d guess that’s probably true for most of them, this one is probably an outlier

  • JayEnglish
    7•2 months ago

    If the guys that made Internet Explorer also made bombs…

  • @DagnetEnglish
    5•2 months ago

    Japan now has the grounds to restart WW2