By RIKAKO TAKAI/ Staff Writer
June 17, 2022 at 19:00 JST
An unexploded bomb found in a residential area in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, on April 27 (Provided by the city government)
OSAKA--West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) will temporarily suspend train operations in some sections in Osaka Prefecture from around noon on July 24 for the removal of an unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II.
JR West announced on June 16 that it expects services will be halted between Takatsuki and Osaka on the Kyoto Line as well as between Shin-Osaka and Hanaten on the Osaka-Higashi Line for about three hours.
But the railway operator also said it may take more time before it can resume operations depending on the progress of the work to dispose of the bomb, found at a construction site in Suita in the prefecture in late April.
The work will also force JR West to suspend special rapid train services between Maibara and Himeji on the Biwako, Kyoto and Kobe lines, according to the railway operator.
It will also halt the services for the limited express trains Thunderbird, Konotori, Super Hakuto and Haruka in some sections.
The unexploded ordnance, apparently dropped by U.S. forces during World War II, is 1.8 meters long and has a diameter of 60 centimeters.
Personnel from the Ground Self-Defense Force will defuse and remove the bomb from noon on July 24.
The same day, the city will place an area within a roughly 300-meter radius from the site off-limits and ask some 2,000 people from about 950 households living in the zone, which covers JR West’s railway tracks, to evacuate.
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