Japanese officials defused and removed a World War II-era bomb, seen here atop sandbags, from Senaga Island near Naha Airport on Okinawa, Japan, Dec. 23, 2024. (Tomigusuku City)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese troops removed and defused an American shell believed to be left over from World War II on a small island south of Okinawa’s capital city.

The shell is one of several pieces of leftover ordnance found recently in southern Japan.

The 5-inch shell was removed around 9 a.m. Monday from a construction site in Tomigusuku city on Senaga Island, about 2,500 feet from Naha Airport’s runway, a spokesman for Tomigusuku’s Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division said by phone Monday.

Several members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit moved the shell into an explosion-proof container and defused it, the spokesman said.

The shell was found Nov. 8 by a contractor who was excavating soil with heavy equipment as part of disaster recovery work, the spokesman said.

No businesses or homes were evacuated, but traffic was restricted within a radius of 83 feet during the operation. The shell was taken to a warehouse managed by Okinawa prefecture and will be disposed of later, according to the spokesman.

Some Japanese government officials may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.

The discovery followed the defusing and removal of another 5-inch, WWII-era U.S. shell from a construction site in Naha city earlier this month. Both discoveries were unrelated to magnetic surveys the Japanese government has been conducting at airports around the country, including one at Naha Airport that began last week.

The government began the surveys in October at Miyazaki Airport on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, after a World War II-era bomb exploded there.

Magnetic surveys at airports in Sendai, Matsuyama and Fukuoka are happening concurrently with the Naha survey.

Crews between April 1, 2023, and March 31 disposed of nearly 22 tons of unexploded ordnance on Okinawa believed to be left over from WWII.