Bag with inflammable tube falls from U.S. forces chopper in Okinawa
KYODO NEWS - 7 minutes ago - 14:26 | All, Japan
A bag containing an inflammable signal flame tube fell from a U.S. military helicopter over the Motobu peninsula in northern Okinawa Prefecture in Japan on Tuesday, a local Defense Ministry bureau said.
An official of the U.S. Marine Corps, which is searching for the 18-kilogram bag, told Kyodo News on Wednesday the UH-1 helicopter dropped it inadvertently during a routine drill and that there were no civilians confirmed in the area where it landed.
The crew of the aircraft belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma reported the incident at around 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Marine Corps.
The Marines are conducting a thorough examination of the incident while prioritizing the safety of local residents, the official said.
The Okinawa Defense Bureau is calling on residents to contact it if the bag is found.
The southern island prefecture is home to the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Emperor's visit to Okinawa reflects imperial family's close ties to the island. Here is why he cares
In this photo released by the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Marines take cover behind tattered tombstones during their advance across cemetery ridge on Okinawa, Ryukyu Island, as enemy bullets pass overhead in the battle against Japanese forces in June 1945. By MARI YAMAGUCHI Emperor Naruhito and his family have visited Okinawa to honor the dead ahead of the 80th anniversary of one of the harshest battles of World War II. On what was his seventh visit to Okinawa, Naruhito was joined this week by his wife and daughter for a tour of the southern island and its history. Naruhito's father, the 91-year-old former Emperor Akihito, especially cared about Okinawa. On June 23, the island will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, which led to heavy American troop presence on the island, even after the nearly 30 years of U.S. occupation ended in 1972. Here is what to know about Okinawa's history. U.S. troops landed on the main Okinawa island on April 1, 1945, beginning a battle in their push toward mainland Japan. The Battle of Okinawa lasted until late June, killing some 200,000 people — about 12,000 Americans and more than 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians. In all, the island lost about one quarter of its population. In Itoman town, where the battle ended, the remains of most of the war dead reside in an ossuary at the National War Dead Peace Mausoleum. It was the first place Naruhito and his wife Empress Masako and their 23-year-old daughter, Princess Aiko, visited on Wednesday where they laid a bouquet of white flowers each. Okinawa remained under U.S. occupation from 1945 until the 1972 reversion to Japan. The U.S. military maintains a presence there due to Okinawa's strategic importance for security in the Pacific. Private properties were confiscated to build U.S. bases, and the base-dependent economy hampered the growth of local industry. Many Okinawans feel they have been sacrificed for the mainland in the war fought in the name of Hirohito, the grandfather of Emperor Naruhito. Bitter feelings were fresh in Okinawa in the 1970s, when many people said the emperor should take responsibility. Akihito, who was almost hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown during his visit to Okinawa as crown prince in 1975, has been a regular visitor. Every year on June 23, Akihito and his family observe a moment of silence for the victims of the battle. It's one of the four key dates he said should never forget, along with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, as well as the Aug. 15 end of the war. Naruhito has pledged to follow in his father's footsteps and repeatedly expressed the importance to reflect on and remember the wartime history. In February, Naruhito stressed the importance of telling the tragedy of World War II to younger generations, promising to help promoting the understanding of history and the determination for peace. He and his family on Wednesday visited the Cornerstone of Peace Memorial, which is engraved with the names of about 250,000 war dead on Itoman's Mabuni Hill. They also visited a permanent war exhibit at the town's Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, where they met the survivors and bereaved families. On Thursday they laid flowers at a monument commemorating about 1,500 people including hundreds of school children killed in a U.S. torpedo attack on their evacuation ship Tsushima Maru on Aug. 1944. They visited a museum dedicated to the tragedy and met with a number of survivors. Naruhito and Masako, in a message released to Japanese media, renewed their pledge to peace and said their daughter deeply took to her heart Okinawan people's history of hardship. Okinawa remains home to the majority of about 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. The island, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japanese land, hosts 70% of U.S. military facilities. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
![Podcast [English World] Episode 100: Atomic bomb trees](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.kyodonews.net%2Fenglish%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fposts%2F8367a5e1916be92c4e60b9cb878b241b%2Fcropped_image_l.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![Podcast [English World] Episode 100: Atomic bomb trees](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkyodonews.net.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Kyodo News
2 days ago
- Kyodo News
Podcast [English World] Episode 100: Atomic bomb trees
KYODO NEWS - 22 hours ago - 12:00 | All, Podcast How many trees survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima? Three Kyodo News reporters -- Toma Mochizuki, Peter Masheter and Donican Lam -- talk about an article written by Donican about the trees in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bombing by the United States on Aug. 6, 1945. Listen as they discuss how many trees survived and what they symbolize, and the project that endeavors to take saplings from the trees abroad. Article mentioned in the podcast: FEATURE: Silent witnesses: A-bomb trees carrying on aging survivors' legacy Kyodo News presents a bilingual podcast for English learners about the ins and outs of news writing and how to translate tricky Japanese phrases into English. Have fun listening to journalists discuss recent articles as they occasionally go off on unrelated tangents. More podcast episodes: Podcast [English World] Episode 99: Overtourism in Japan Podcast Episode 98: Japan mulls covering childbirth costs from 2026 Podcast [English World] Episode 97: Separate surname debate in Japan
Kyodo News
2 days ago
- Kyodo News
4 arrested in Japan for alleged sale of ivory as mammoth tusks
KYODO NEWS - 14 hours ago - 13:29 | Japan, All Japanese police have arrested four people for allegedly selling at an online auction elephant tusks as mammoth tusks to evade a trade ban, police said Wednesday. Nobumasa Daigo, a 58-year-old executive of Daigo Ivory Co. that processes and sells ivory products, and three other family members who work for the company based in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo were arrested Monday on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act that prohibits misleading labeling of goods. Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, which led the investigation, suspects the company annually sold elephant tusks and ivory products worth around 100 million yen ($695,000) by labelling them as coming from mammoths, an extinct species. The four were arrested on suspicion of selling such products totaling some 126,500 yen to four male customers via an auction site between October 2022 and November 2023, police said, adding the case came to light after a tip from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The suspects have admitted to the allegations, according to the police. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention, bans in principle international trade in ivory to thwart the threat of poaching of elephants. Elephant tusks have been traded under the guise of mammoth tusks as they are hard to distinguish, according to environmental organization the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund. In Japan, commercial trade in elephant tusks is allowed if they are certified by a state-backed organization as legally obtained tusks. Related coverage: American arrested after bringing gun into Japan undetected: police Endangered turtles seized in apparent bid to smuggle into Japan
