Okinawa is one of the worst hotspots because of the sheer scale of the battle that raged there. The island was not mined, but it was bombed relentlessly. More people were killed in the April 1945 battle of Okinawa, called the “Storm of Steel,” than by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
The bombs, mortars, bullets and artillery shells that rained down on the island left 12,000 US troops dead and killed as many as 250,000 Japanese, including many civilians who were caught in the crossfire in 2002.
All told, about 200,000 tonnes of explosives were used by the US and Okinawa’s Japanese defenders. An estimated 10,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance was left scattered across the island, mainly in the south.
Much of the ordnance had been recovered by the time the US returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972. About 1,500 tonnes have been recovered since, a pace of about 30 tonnes a year.
Along with responding to emergency calls, Nakano’s squad deploys on regular missions once a week.
“Today we went to 19 places and collected 42 explosives, from hand grenades to 5-inch artillery shells,” he said after a 10-hour convoy through sugarcane farms, beachfront parks and numerous construction sites. “There is ordnance everywhere.
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