KAWAGOE, Japan — A neighborhood at the edge of the Tokyo metro area went one better than turning swords into plowshares. Its residents turned ceramic grenade casings into flower vases and garden ornaments.
Thousands of the World War II-era casings litter Kawagoe city’s Kugedo neighborhood in Saitama prefecture, where a long-demolished munitions factory made them for the imperial armed forces. Late in the war, with iron supplies running low, Japan’s military ordered potters all over the country to make grenades.
Locals turned the old casings into flower holders and garden ornaments, according to retired electrician Sadao Tokita, 83. He keeps half a dozen or more, along with a large pottery landmine, in a wooden box in his backyard.
