Japan touts explosion-proof container for defusing unexploded World War II ordnance

ISTANBUL

Japanese soldiers on Wednesday demonstrated a new explosion-proof container to safely remove unexploded US-made ordnance left over from World War II, US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.

The cylindrical container, said to be roughly the size of a washing machine, was used by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to safely defuse a shell in a town in Okinawa, an island region and the site of fierce fighting during the war.

Soldiers placed the shell inside a wooden box, put the box into a container, sealed it, and then covered it with a protective tent. After nearly five minutes, they removed the tent and took out the defused shell.

According to a military spokeswoman, this procedure takes roughly 20 minutes longer than traditional methods but increases safety and can be performed quickly once a shell is located.

Since its introduction last year, the container has been used 25 times. Details of the device were not shared for security reasons.

Unexploded bombs from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa are still commonly discovered across the island of Okinawa, especially at former battlefields and construction areas.