Thousands evacuated as 2 WWII shells removed in Kobe, Shizuoka

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  • 2

    Saulo Akazawa

    Lots of red tape in in Hama yesterday. Glad all went well.

  • -4

    Iowan

    Huh?

  • -1

    Onniyama

    FPS Russia. That is just it. The clean up was most likely helter-skelter. Things were in ruins. People were just trying to find enough to eat. They are constantly finding unexploded bombs all over the country. In Belgium (among other countries) they are still finding unexploded shells from WW1. But who knows? Perhaps you are right. Maybe they found the remains of torture or experiment victims and want to keep it hush-hush.

  • -1

    habibu

    thanks god it save

  • 1

    frenchosa

    They found a WW2 bomb in the lot near my condo in --Osaka. The GSDF removed it earlier this month. It made the Japanese news... surprised it wasn't mentioned in JapanToday. About 6,000 people had to evacuate.... my family left town for the in-laws. There used to be a factory there, after tearing down the factory and testing the ground.. they found the bomb. I never thought actions from WW2 would directly affect me.

  • 1

    KariHaruka

    Few years back 3 fishermen were killed in the North Sea by an old WWII bomb. The amount of bombs that were dropped in the first and second World Wars would make it impossible to clean up every single bomb. It be impossible to know where they all are.

  • 1

    Yubaru

    There are literally thousands if not tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance here in Japan and while it may be inconvenient for people in the area that the bomb was being removed, better safe than sorry.

    It happens quite often down here, and not too long ago at a construction site a worker lost his eye because of an unexploded bomb went off while he was digging a hole with a power shovel.

  • 3

    Wolfpack

    Removal work began Sunday morning at a factory in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a dud shell, believed to have been fired by a U.S. naval ship during World War II,

    Was mainland Japan ever shelled by the US Navy? I know Okinawa was but I thought the atomic bombs ended the war making a land invasion unnecessary.

  • 1

    Yubaru

    Was mainland Japan ever shelled by the US Navy? I know Okinawa was but I thought the atomic bombs ended the war making a land invasion unnecessary.

    Mainland was heavily bombed in many areas but shelled? Great question.

  • -1

    all4faj

    Not sure what the difference between shelling and bombing is, But Japan was bombed heavily by US forces during WWII , The fire bombings of Tokyo , First ever experimental use of Napalm, killed more people than Nagasaki and Hiroshima put together. There were countless cities that were bombed, Osaka Castle was almost totally destroyed.

  • 3

    Harry_Gatto

    The reporting here is a little muddled as it jumps constantly between "bomb" and "shell", seems the writer's don't know the difference.

  • 3

    Yubaru

    Not sure what the difference between shelling and bombing is, But Japan was bombed heavily by US forces during WWII ,

    Simply put shelling would infer that the projectiles were fired from either a navy ship or some other type of land based artillery. Bombing infers a projectile being dropped from an aircraft.

  • 2

    jansob1

    That size makes it almost certain that it was an aircraft bomb. Only the main guns on a battleship fire shells that big and our battleships didn't come within shelling range of Honshu until after the war.

  • -5

    WA4TKG

    ' Got Bless America '

  • 0

    CrisGerSan

    Sorry but yes capital ships including battleships did fire at Mainland Japan and at Kobe in particular so that was probably from that action. I am glad that no one was hurt. I am very glad that careful steps are taken to protect civilians during such operations....and am very sad that such remnants still exist from what was very wrongful action during the war, civilian towns and cities should NEVER have been a target, ever ever. Let us hope that the remnants will be found and safely disposed of.

    I am among other things a naval historian and had many relatives who served in the US Navy in WWII, and work with surviving veterans of both Japan and the US. Needless to say it is sad to see that the actual history of that time is so little known now, and was so little revealed back then.

  • 0

    lucabrasi

    These were discovered quite a while back. There were notices up at Hakata station all last week, warning of disruption to Shinkansen services on Sunday. If I'd been a local resident, I'd have preferred it if the SDF had gone to work immediately, not waited till the weekend. Imagine going to bed at night knowing what's buried underneath you....

  • -1

    IRobin

    Those countries that made the greatest damaged upon Japan are the countires that Japanese love most, believe it or not.

  • 1

    oldsanno

    Removal work began Sunday morning at a factory in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a dud shell, believed to have been fired by a U.S. naval ship during World War II

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_naval_bombardments_of_Japan_during_World_War_II#Hamamatsu

    Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II

    On 29 July, a group of warships was detached from the main body of the Allied fleet to bombard the city of Hamamatsu. This force comprised the same ships which had attacked Kamaishi on 14 July with the addition of HMS King George V and the destroyers HMS Ulysses, Undine and Urania; the four British ships were designated Task Unit 37.1.2 (TU 37.1.2). The city had previously suffered extensive damage from air attacks

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamamatsu_in_World_War_II

    In 1945, Hamamatsu city had an estimated population of 166,346 people. A year after the war, the United States Army Air Forces's Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific War) reported that 60.3 percent of the city had been totally destroyed.[3]

    In addition to strategic bombing, Hamamatsu was also subject to tactical air raids launched by United States Navy carrier-based aircraft, and was bombarded by United States and Royal Navy vessels on July 29, 1945

  • 0

    Kabukilover

    A shell is shot from a canon and a bomb is dropped from an airplane. That there may be thousands of "duds" buried in Japan is scary to say the very least.

  • -1

    jansob1

    Good info from posters! I was unaware of the shellings, probably because they never seem to make it into most histories. I lived in Hamamatsu and heard a lot about the bombings but not the shellings. I lived near cave complexes (now abandoned and sealed) where lots of people moved after the first raids...apparently some aircraft parts production was also moved there. We had an unscheduled holiday once when construction near my school uncovered a 2000 lb bomb.

  • 0

    Chin4Sailor

    Forces removed two unexploded wartime shells in Kobe and Shizuoka on Sunday

    One was a bomb, one was a shell.

    A couple of presents from America...With Love... You're Welcome... Let's hope that Japan, never needs to receive any kinds of gifts like those ever again...

  • 0

    whiskeysour

    those shells are huge !!!!! super cannons

  • 0

    Fadamor

    The shell found in Hamamatsu was probably a 16-inch High Explosive round like those fired from the Iowa-class battleships. From Wiki:

    For unarmored targets and shore bombardment, the 1,900 lb (862 kg) Mk. 13 HC (High-Capacity—referring to the large bursting charge) shell was available. The Mk. 13 shell would create a crater 50 feet (15 m) wide and 20 feet (6 m) deep upon impact and detonation, and could defoliate trees 400 yards (360 m) from the point of impact.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armament_of_the_Iowa_class_battleship#Ammunition

    Quite a lot of shelling was done in the last few weeks of the war and Hamamatsu was, indeed, one of the naval bombardment targets. (Hmm, maybe "naval bombardment" is why AFP is having trouble figuring out the difference between a shell and a bomb?) Again, from Wiki:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_naval_bombardments_of_Japan_during_World_War_II#Hamamatsu

    The only shore bombardment that looks close to Kobe shows on a map as occurring on July 24-25, but the text entry says that bombardment was aimed at Kure, which is on the wrong end of the inland sea.

  • 0

    Fadamor

    A couple of presents from America...

    To be fair, Britain participated in the shelling as well.

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