Explosion hits Yasukuni Shrine restroom during harvest ceremony
Police search a restroom building at Yasukuni Shrine on Nov. 23 after a explosion was set off in a men’s stall. (Nobuhiro Shirai)
An explosion damaged a public restroom at war-related Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo during its annual Niiname-sai harvest thanksgiving ceremony on Nov. 23.
Although a large number of worshippers were at the shrine in Chiyoda Ward on Nov. 23, a national holiday, no injuries were reported in the blast, investigators said.
Police found a fire ignition device and a plastic tube that were apparently used to trigger the explosion in a men’s restroom stall located near the southern entrance to the shrine. A bomb disposal squad removed another tube from the site, Kojimachi Police Station officials said.
Visitors reported hearing the blast around 10 a.m. Officials from the Tokyo Fire Department and Metropolitan Police Department said the walls of the restroom were damaged by fire.
The shrine, which honors the nation’s war dead along with 14 Class-A war criminals, has been a source of friction with Asian countries, particularly China and South Korea, who say the shrine glorifies Japan’s military past. The Niiname-sai ceremony was conducted as scheduled, shrine officials said.
Explosion occurs at Yasukuni Shrine
Yomiuri Shimbun
Jiji Press TOKYO (Jiji Press) — An explosion occurred in a public restroom at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Monday, police said.
“No one was hurt,” an official of the Metropolitan Police Department said, adding a terror attack possibility cannot be ruled out.
According to the police, there was an emergency call past 10 a.m. reporting an explosion sound and smoke at the facility near the southern gate of the war-linked Shinto shrine.
The Kojimachi station’s police officers who rushed over to the venue saw a burn mark inside a men’s compartment and damage on a portion of the ceiling above the room. They also found a device believed to be a detonator. An MPD bomb unit collected residues of the explosive there.
Investigators examine the toilet at Yasukuni Shrine where the sound of an explosion was reported Monday morning. (Yomiuri)
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