Japanese soldiers remove a U.S.-made, 5-inch shell from an explosion-proof container after defusing it in Yaese, Okinawa, June 11, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
YAESE, Okinawa — Japanese troops demonstrated a new, explosion-proof container Wednesday that improves safety during the removal of unexploded U.S.-made ordnance left over from World War II.
The demo took place in Yaese, a town in southern Okinawa where a five-inch shell was discovered at a farm on May 7. Six members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit used the cylindrical container — roughly the size of a washing machine — to safely defuse the shell.
As reporters watched from about 80 feet away, troops placed a wooden box holding the shell into the container, sealed it, and covered it with a protective tent. About five quiet minutes later, they removed the tent and retrieved the defused shell.
The process takes about 20 minutes longer than traditional methods but can be carried out quickly once a shell is found, a spokeswoman with the Ground Self-Defense Force’s 15th Brigade told Stars and Stripes near the operation site.
The traditional method typically involves digging a 20-foot hole and lining it with metal plates. The new container eliminates the need for excavation and significantly reduces the evacuation radius by minimizing noise and vibration, according to the Okinawa General Bureau’s website.
“Using the container helps a lot because it is safer,” the brigade spokeswoman said. It’s customary in Japan that some government officials speak to the media on condition of anonymity.
The container was specially designed to defuse five-inch shells, and has been used 25 times since it was introduced in January 2024.
The device used to disable the shell — known as a dearmer — was not described in detail due to security concerns.
The high-strength steel cylinder has a dual-layer structure designed to contain explosions and fragments from five-inch shells, a bureau spokesman said by email May 7.
Nineteen of the 23 bombs defused on Okinawa between April 2024 and March were five-inch shells, according to the brigade spokeswoman.
The bureau has no plans to create containers for other bomb sizes, the bureau spokesman said.
Wednesday’s operation was not affected by an explosion two days earlier that injured four Japanese troops at a munitions storage site on Kadena Air Base, the brigade spokeswoman said.
A U.S.-made, 75-mm anti-tank shell is believed to have exploded, a brigade spokesman said by phone Tuesday. An investigation is ongoing, and similar work at storage areas has been suspended across Japan, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said at a news conference Tuesday.
Unexploded ordnance from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa is still regularly found across the island, particularly at former battlefield and construction sites. On June 3, another U.S.-made, five-inch shell was defused in the Furugen district of Nanjo city, a city spokesman said by phone Tuesday.
