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Japan: Cars Drive Through Smoke-Filled Tunnel After Fire On Expressway

A car fire erupted inside a tunnel on Sanyo Expressway in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan on Saturday, August 10 filing the tunnel with smoke and shutting down the highway for both directions for hours. There was heavy traffic on the highway at the the time as it was the first day of Bon holidays. No injuries were reported.

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XINHUA PHOTOS OF THE DAY

(240720) -- BEIJING, July 20, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People perform traditional dance to celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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JAPAN-TOKYO-OBON FESTIVAL

(240719) -- TOKYO, July 19, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People perform traditional dance to celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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JAPAN-TOKYO-OBON FESTIVAL

(240719) -- TOKYO, July 19, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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JAPAN-TOKYO-OBON FESTIVAL

(240719) -- TOKYO, July 19, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People perform traditional dance to celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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JAPAN-TOKYO-OBON FESTIVAL

(240719) -- TOKYO, July 19, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People perform traditional dance to celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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JAPAN-TOKYO-OBON FESTIVAL

(240719) -- TOKYO, July 19, 2024 Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM) -- People perform traditional dance to celebrate the upcoming Obon Festival in Tokyo, Japan, July 19, 2024. The Obon Festival is a centuries-old custom which celebrates and honors the lives of deceased family members and friends. Photo by Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM/Zhang Xiaoyu)

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Paper lanterns in Iwate Pref.

MIYAKO, Japan - Residents of temporary housing units in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, for people affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami craft paper lanterns using milk cartons on July 28, 2011. They plan to light up about 2,000 lanterns on Aug. 11 to mark five months since the disaster, around the Obon holiday season in mid-August.

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Thousands of lanterns light up night at Todaiji

Some 2,500 lanterns are lit at Todaiji, a Buddhist temple in Japan's ancient capital of Nara, on Aug. 15, 2015, during an "Obon" memorial service. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Woman bows before paper lanterns during "Obon" service at Todaiji

A woman puts her palms together and bows in front of paper lanterns lit for an "Obon" memorial service at Todaiji, a Buddhist temple in Japan's ancient capital of Nara, on Aug. 15, 2015. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Face of great Buddha statue seen through open window at Todaiji

The face of the great Buddha statue is seen through an open window on Aug. 15, 2015, during an "Obon" memorial service at Todaiji, a Buddhist temple in Japan's ancient capital of Nara. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Meeting of district chiefs in Fukushima town

A participant speaks at a meeting of administrative district chiefs in the town of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, on June 17, 2015. The Japanese government's headquarters for the nuclear emergency field response task force explained during the meeting a plan to lift the evacuation order for the town, imposed following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and let residents return before the "obon" week in August. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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State economy minister Takagi at Fukushima town assembly

Yosuke Takagi, state minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, answers questions at a meeting of the Naraha town assembly in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on June 17, 2015. Takagi, who is in charge of the government's headquarters for the nuclear emergency field response task force, explained a plan to lift the evacuation order for the town and let residents return before the "obon" week in August. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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WWII flags

Photo taken June 25, 2018 in Astoria, Oregon shows Obon Society founders Keiko Ziak (R) and her husband Rex examining a Yosegaki Hinomaru flag sent to the organization from an American family. The nonprofit venture, which returns these WWII-era souvenirs collected by Allied Forces from Japanese soldiers who died in battle to surviving relatives, receives around four to five flags per day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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WWII flags

Photo taken June 25, 2018, shows a visitor to the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon, viewing Obon Society's exhibit of more than a dozen Yosegaki Hinomaru flags. Such "good luck flags" signed by friends and family that Japanese soldiers had brought to World War II battlefields were often collected by Allied Forces as keepsakes. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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WWII flags

Obon Society co-founder Rex Ziak explains during a luncheon in Santa Barbara, California, (on May 14, 2018) how the organization's scholars analyze Yosegaki Hinomaru -- WWII-era "good luck flags" collected by Allied Forces from Japanese soldiers who died in battle - to determine the flag's origins. The nonprofit organization is searching for surviving families of original owners of around 900 such flags and has returned more than 200 flags since its founding in 2009. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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U.S. group returns Rising Sun flags to Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) receives a Japanese flag of the Rising Sun from a U.S. couple at his office in Tokyo on Aug. 4, 2015. The flag, returned by Rex (C) and Keiko Ziak, is one of such flags collected by OBON 2015, a U.S.-based group cofounded by Rex to help U.S. veterans return Japanese flags, brought home as souvenirs from World War II battlefields, to bereaved families of Japanese soldiers. The flags are filled with good luck messages from soldiers' families. A total of 70 flags were returned in commemoration of this summer's 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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CORRECTED Paper lanterns in Iwate Pref.

MIYAKO, Japan - CORRECTING 2ND SENTENCE Residents of temporary housing units in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, for people affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami craft paper lanterns using milk cartons on July 28, 2011. They plan to light up about 2,000 lanterns on Aug. 11 to mark five months since the disaster, around the Obon holiday season in mid-August. (Kyodo)

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Paper lanterns in Iwate Pref.

MIYAKO, Japan - Residents of temporary housing units in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, for people affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami craft paper lanterns using milk cartons on July 28, 2011. They plan to light up about 2,000 lanterns on Aug. 11 to mark five months since the disaster, during the Obon holiday season in mid-August. (Kyodo)

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Daimonji Festival in Kyoto

Photo taken on the night of Aug. 16, 2018, shows a bonfire in the shape of a giant Chinese character meaning "large" on a mountain side during the Daimonji Festival, one of the most famous events in Kyoto. In the festival, formally known as Gozan no Okuribi, five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city in the culmination of the Obon period in summer. In Japan, it is believed that each year during Obon, ancestors' spirits return to this world in order to visit their relatives. The purpose of the bonfires is to guide these souls back to heaven. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Daimonji Festival in Kyoto

Photo taken on the night of Aug. 16, 2019, shows a bonfire in the shape of a giant Chinese character meaning "large" on a mountain side during the Daimonji Festival, one of the most famous events in Kyoto. In the festival, formally known as Gozan no Okuribi, five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city in the culmination of the Obon period in summer. In Japan, it is believed that each year during Obon, ancestors' spirits return to this world in order to visit their relatives. The purpose of the bonfires is to guide these souls back to heaven. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo