Tourist took grenade-like object on flight in Okinawa

Tuesday 24th March, 06:39 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 30 Total Comments Show All

soldave at 12:29 PM JST - 24th March

Mookoo - No, am trying to determine a figure which supoprts your "not with the huge amounts of rent & utilities money the Japanese government is paying for the US bases to be in Okinawa" comment that you made earlier. Do you have one?
Ninjazilla at 12:30 PM JST - 24th March

Wait so if the airline didnt catch it how did he find out it was a grenade??
urufuls at 01:15 PM JST - 24th March

Tourist took grenade-like object on flight in Okinawa

It's called a pineapple.
aikisako at 01:29 PM JST - 24th March

a spicy pineapple! ohh thats a spicy meatball!
Altria at 01:33 PM JST - 24th March

Tourist took grenade-like object on flight in Okinawa

It's called a pineapple.

Hahaha!
Badge213 at 02:49 PM JST - 24th March

If you read it, it doesn't say it is a grenade or not, all it says is "decayed grenade-like object" , "I then found that it might be a grenade" no where does the article say that it is actually a grenade nor an explosive or once active explosive.
dennis0bauer at 03:23 PM JST - 24th March

“I thought it was a seashell. I then found that it might be a grenade but thought I shouldn’t leave it there. I didn’t think it might explode,’’

smart move, he has a bright future ahead
dennis0bauer at 03:27 PM JST - 24th March

Soldave- here are some figures http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6690/
Mookoo at 04:50 PM JST - 24th March

Soldave doesn't need figures. He needs a reason to keep raining his hate on the locals of Okinawa. The tourist was a mainlander, the airline was a mainland company, airports fall under the operation of the national government. The stab he made at Okinawans somehow being responsible for the idiotic actions of a tourist, and the ineptness of the airport and airline security have nothing to do with the Okinawans he despises, and everything to do with a failure in both personal responsibility, government responsibility and corporate responsibility in this country. The avoidance of responsibility in any shape or form is a sickness here.
swerwerkind at 05:44 PM JST - 24th March

Well said Mookoo. I defense of the tourist, though, I have to say that all manner of object and creature that washes onto the beach is interesting to people. That is why kids like poking jelly-fish with sticks whilst watching the snails eat it. So if a roundish, pretty unidentifiable object happens to wash up on shore, and I had to find it... I might take it, to investigate it further at a later stage.

Then again, if a roundish, unidentifiable object washes up on the shore of Okinawa... the home of a ga-zillion army bases and furious battle during the second world war... I recon I might take it to a nice secluded spot with descent cover, where I can hurl it at a rock to see if something interesting happens.
JeffLee at 05:48 PM JST - 24th March

"grenade-like" means it's not a grenade. To whit, "He is LIKE a clown." That means the subject is not actually a clown but resembles one in certain ways.

So I wonder what this thing was?
Mookoo at 06:44 PM JST - 24th March

"Grenade-like" means that there is not 100% certainty at the time of the report. The police likely used that in their initial release to the press. And, as there will not likely be any follow-up reporting, that's the best we're gonna do.
usaexpat at 11:18 PM JST - 24th March

So is the grenade like object a grenade or not? The point that bothers me most is that he was able to ravel freely with what could have been an explosive in his luggage, not very comforting.
TheMarion at 11:55 PM JST - 24th March

Learn that in WWII both sides had grenades. The USA had a grenade that could only be activated when you pulled the pin and the you had several seconds to throw it, to blow up the enemy. The Japanese had a grenade that was activated when you struck it on your helmet, but then the Japanese carefully set the grenade on the ground and the next person who touched, caused it to explode. The fellow that found the "grenade-like" object was foolish to even pick it up - we were taight to never pick up a Japanese grenade Too bad that some isn't teaching today's tourists that they should NEVER pick up what could be a very dangerous dud.
Mookoo at 12:00 AM JST - 25th March

Ichy - are you up late and drinking? The point made earlier was that the locals are too poor and ignorant to properly screen passengers at the airport. It has been shown to be false - both the idiot with the grenade and those that should have stopped him were mainlanders.

Further, tourism comprises a much larger part of the Okinawan economy than the military. Drop by the prefectural homepage sometime. You'll see that the bases make up a mere 5% of the local economy. Yet they occupy about 20% of the land.