Loose Cannons: Russian Kuriles Expedition Uncovers Japanese Weapons

Tracked vehicles crawl along a beach on Iturup Island, one of the southernmost of the Kuriles. Iturup is one of several of the islands that are the subject of a seven-decade territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.

Around 100 people were enlisted for the expedition after reports that abandoned weaponry dating back to the war had been discovered in Iturup’s dense jungle.

Coastal artillery on Iturup. The Kurile chain of islands was captured by the Soviet Union and the Japanese population expelled after the United States and Britain promised Moscow the islands in return for entering the WWII fight against Japan. Today, Japan lays claim to four of the southernmost Islands in the chain.

Members of the expedition, which was organized by the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Defense Ministry, haul an artillery piece from the jungle of Iturup. The photo was released by the TASS news agency on August 19.

According to TASS, the gun was discovered after a local picking berries literally stumbled onto the relic. A second, partly disassembled cannon was also found during the expedition.

Asian script visible on the weapon. Although heavy fighting took place on the northern Kuriles during the 1945 Soviet invasion, on the southern islands clashes were only sporadic -- often with Japanese units who had defied their superiors’ orders to surrender.

Along with the artillery pieces, more than 400 75-millimeter shells and other explosives were uncovered.

A member of the expedition in military uniform stacks the artillery shells. Handling such time-ravaged ordnance is risky, as detonators inside can decay over time, leaving the explosive on a hair trigger. In 2010, three experienced disposal experts were killed in Germany while trying to defuse a WWII-era bomb.

TASS says the Iturup explosives have been destroyed, but no photographs of any controlled explosion have been released by the state-funded news agency.

The remains of a Japanese artillery piece being lifted out of the jungle on Iturup. The Japanese guns will reportedly be restored and put on display.

A member of the expedition checks out a sulphur spring. As well as hunting for antique military leftovers, the team is also tasked with various “botanical, volcanological, and geological” studies.

A shipwreck on an isolated beach on Iturup Island, photographed during the expedition. The exploration of the southern Kuriles will reportedly continue into September, with the team soon scheduled to explore the wilderness of Urup Island.