Dug Relics from Okinawa

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Aloha,
Recently returned from a trip to Okinawa and was able to get a day of caving in while I was there. We started off the morning by stopping by a construction site where they were removing a good sized hill, while moving this hill, they uncovered a nice tunnel system by digging right in the middle of it. It had rained heavely few days before so the exposed tunnel system ended up getting flooded. We were able dig a little around a large dirt mount that the construction workers had moved from the section of tunnel they dug into. We uncovered several Type 97 and 99 grenades, lots of pieces of leather from boots, ammo pouches etc and large amounts of 7.7 ammo and a nice oiler with oil still in it. There were also large amounts of spent American rounds that the rain had washed up from the mud, they were easy to spot. We spend about and hour then headed off to our original destination Yaeju Dake where our Okinawan Friend had found three natural caves near the top of this hill. I will add photos from our first stop then continue with the story after this set of photos.

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Another view of the flood tunnel

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Relics recovered from the dirt mound.

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Remains of a Rear Ammo Pouch

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

US M1 Round, you can see how they stand out

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Completely Encrusted Type 97 Grenade

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Removing some of the crust of the Type 97

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Crust completely removed and type 97 defused.

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Defused Type 97 and a Type 99

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

after arriving a Yaeju Dake around noon, we stopped on top of the hill, packed our bags and started off in the thick jungle. We followed our Okinawan friend who had told us about three caves that he had found few weeks before. After arriving at the set of caves, we headed off to the first one, entered and started digging, 10 minutes later, I uncovered a very nice dog tag half buried in the cave floor. We continued to dig for another hour and uncovered several Type 88 Fuzes, lots of US shrapnel and other odds and ends. After an hour of digging we decided to head over to the larger cave but the entrance was half blow shut so we had to sqeeze our way around a large coral bolder that had fallen on the entrance and slide down into the this cave which was a bit scary. Once we entered the cave, the floor was covered with large type of gun powder, the type used in 75 MM cannons. We dug and found several gun powder bags, the plastic type, several uniform buttons and other odds and ends. We also uncovered what was left of an Army Gas Mask buried near the entrance where the it had partially collapsed. After several hours of digging, my friend Chris uncovered a dog tag, exaclty like mine with the same numbers and next to it he uncovered a Type 88 Fuse Container, after pulling the container out, we realized that it was full and continued digging, we recovered a total of 4 containers that were still sealed with the fuses in them. By the time we were finished, it was getting dark so we exited the cave and decided to open the containers and remove the fuses that were in them. We kept one sealed because it was the best one out of all of them as it still had the writting on the front so we can display it in the museum. The following set of pics were taken on while on Yaeju Dake

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

My Friend preparing to enter the first cave

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

View down in to the cave

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Japanese Dog Tag right after it was dug up.

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Digging out the Army Gas Mask

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

the recovered gas mask canister and hose with some type of cloth. The mask just fell apart in our hands.