what a waste

[jeeplover]

i have a serious question. in ww2 you see pictures like this they dumped them in the ocean. my question is why? could they not have smelted all of the metal? japan has very few natural resources so is this not a waste?

[reneblacky]

Shipping was not worthwhile.

[tomp]

I imagine disarmament by any means necessary was the priority, not resource preservation. I doubt something like that was even considered.



Tom

[Willmore]

“Japanese War Fangs Are Pulled”- This was basically done (along with other measures) to stop Japanese militarism as fast as possible. Could this also have been symbolic?

This is from Wikipedia, but explains why those small arms are being dumped at sea -

Japan's postwar constitution, adopted under Allied supervision, included a "Peace Clause", Article 9, which renounced war and banned Japan from maintaining any armed forces.

Occupation of Japan - Wikipedia

[DaveR]

The fact is that Japan had scared the living daylights out of the Allies, "punching well beyond their weight" and there were serious worries about a resurgence of resistance to occupation. Japan had also destabilised the whole colonial regime throughout the East, British French and Dutch. Scary times for the established powers indeed.