Iwo Jima Saving Relics

One viewer asked if I could visit Hill 362 a  and it was convenient because when he did ask   I was actually on the island and I was able to do just that. As you notice on these videos of   these caves not just the ones at Hill 362A but the other ones that you'll see in the   next video, well it's a common occurrence that they'll be either roped off or if they're not   roped off there'll be a rope going through  them so that way they can guide you in and   out. But it's also very common to see a pile  of artifacts just sitting out on the ground   in front of it and that's just because when  they started their dig they probably didn't   finish and then they had to leave the island  and just haven't come back. So unfortunately   for them they couldn't see a lot more but it's  great for us because we can actually see the   artifacts. Deadly artillery a motor fire greeted the Marines as they move forward but by the day's   end the crest was firmly in American hands  the cost had been high 224 killed and wounded   but Hill 362A was an objective that could  not be bypassed during the following day the   entire hill was overrun and the neighboring  Nishi Ridge just to the north was captured. We're gonna go into this cave right  down here and check that out and then   we're going to go into this cave over  here and check that out and then head   up to the top of the of the hill. All right  so here's the first cave we're fixin' to go into and this is it. So see it had promise but  and talk it there's one more that's right   over here. So we're coming around the  corner here to the other cave we saw. Careful because there's a lot of rocks.  Since there's this done it can't be   seen because of the undergrowth. Wow this one looks like pretty good one to get into. Yes here we go alright. Here we go, so you can tell by looking at these caves that they're really small in stature and a lot of   these ones around Hill 362A would be used  to escape attacks and I can see that because   all these are so small and short and they go  in and out of the hill that it would be just   hard to keep track of where the enemy was. As I got out of this cave it was pretty amazing   to see that there's a lot of grass, of course,  but if you look to your right once I get the   camera settled there's an other cave that's  sitting right there, so we're gonna go check   that one out next. Alright so we're at  this other one just under Hill 362A and there's no rope saying we can't go in so means we're going in, maybe not too far. Yeah you can see   there's nothing up in there to go in and see  it's all been caved in. So so we're coming up the   ravine here just driving up along and then we came across a cave right here. The cave right here so   you know what that means, we gotta go check it out. What we're gonna go do definitely not been into   in a long time had to create my own opening. Okay. Alright and Chris it does what we thought it did. Yeah yeah it just loops around. So as you can see this is one of the wings from the Globemaster   that crashed on the other side but we're gonna walk around them out and slide down the other side to   see the other caves. So this is pretty cool we actually found like a lot of tunnels that are   going around the edge of a 362A. Of course they they all look like they all come out around but,   it looks like it would be really easy to evade  capture if you had to escape. And actually back   over there, there's the tunnel circles around  those back. And unfortunately, I didn't bring   my light down. I wasn't expecting that all this goes all the way up. No, stops right here still big block dissent right here. You stay right  there, target practice all day long. Counts   all the bullet holes on the outside of this cave. Amazing and then got a little light here so this   long. Oh yeah it comes out of the other side. This is like perfect for us. Well you're gonna have to   walk through all the gravel on the outside, the trees and bushes and see this one here drops   down about right there it circles around down there. Everything might get stuck so no coming   out of there that side. I wonder if there's any more around this side. I guess the only thing we   can do is go check it out. Alright so looking  up there there's just soaked shell casing and   it looks like part of the igniter on a grenade  right there. And this is on the side of the hill,   so we're still on the backside of a 362A. There's still some more   caves. We're gonna check these out to really it doesn't look like anybody's been here in decades   so hopefully we can actually find something that's pretty interesting. As we walk towards the entrance   of this cave here we came across the pile of what seemed to be just a bunch of trash but   once we started to like move things around and see things in there there was just a treasure   trove of artifacts. You can see a type 30 bayonet right there. There's cups, bottles, tools. There's   there was actually a part of a Morse code machine, there's food canisters, water canisters, a shaving   kit. It was just incredible to see everything just lying in the front. So what I believe happened was   when they were cleaning these caves out they just piled everything in the front and then just let it   go. And these caves didn't look like there had been anybody in it for a long time because there wasn't   any footprints in them. There was a good layer of dust on the floor of the caves but you can see   that there's just stuff just laying everywhere. It blew our minds that it could just be sitting out   out in the weather like this. That's a piece of a helmet. Actually there's a couple pieces of a   helmet there and just looking at this stuff laying there. All right so we found it rusted out tommy   gun. Found this is actually a pretty amazing find because there's only three horses on Iwo Jima at the   time. Baron Nishi who was a 1932 Olympic gold medalist for jumping horses was on the island then.   We found you know just a little sorted pottery and this cup here was just so beautiful that we   had we to take all these items that we found and we gave them to the museum in order to preserve   what was left of them. Found pin shavers it was just it was literally a treasure trove of items   that were found. As we said there was actually two of these type 30 bayonets there which was just   incredible. So on the way out we stumbled across this horde of goodies. We're gonna take back looks   like a gun and then another piece of a sword we're gonna take back. Then I found another   medical kit it looks like it had scissors and  some needles and actually a 45 bullet shell in   it. Interesting so we're gonna take those back and see if we can hand them off to the museum.  See the helmet right there? That's a Japanese helmet, another canteen, another food container seeing it's amazing all this stuff is still out here.  So as you can see this is what we brought out   with us. We could only bring out a certain  amount of things, we didn't have a backpack   with us but so as you can see we brought out two type 30 bayonets. That little piece above it is   actually a scabbard of a broken one. We've got the spur from possibly Baron Nishi which would   be amazing if it was. A beautiful little sake,  cup medical kit with some dental utensils in   it, shaver a razor this is just an amazing  find and I'm really surprised that it was   still just sitting out there in front of  the cave like it was. So coming up shortly   will be actual pictures of the stuff  separately so you can get a better view

Channel: Japan Treasure Hunters

Views: 652,982

Keywords: Iwo Jima Relics found, iwo jima hill 362a, WWII Historic sites, Memories Found on Iwo Jima, visiting iwo jima today, 硫黄島ツアー, iwo jima island, iwo jima today, historic wwii sites today, iwo jima, iwo jima beach, iwo jima flag raising, iwo jima in color, iwo jima today youtube, iwo jima youtube, japan treasure hunters, letters from iwo jima, marine history, ww2 iwo jima, wwii sites, 硫黄島, iwo jima tunnels today, WWII Relics found on Iwo Jima, Iwo Jima saving relics

Id: howXJlnGub8

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020