Japan is still blowing up unexploded ordnance on Okinawa nearly 77 years after World War II
CISR
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(Task & Purpose) On Wednesday, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force conducted an underwater detonation of 315 artillery shells, grenades, and bullets, roughly a half-mile offshore at Naha Port’s Shinko Wharf, in Okinawa.
The munitions are one part of the ongoing legacy of the Battle of Okinawa, where Army and Marine Corps forces battled the Japanese Army for nearly three months in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II. In the last 50 years, 2,094 tons of unexploded ordnance have been recovered and disposed of in the Okinawa prefecture.