Staffers Find a Japanese Hand Grenade From World War II at a Museum in Kentucky

Museums house many fascinating artifacts—from fossilized dinosaur feces and whale earwax plugs to a tent used by George Washington and a mysterious “beaten biscuit” maker.

Typically, the items in their collections are not dangerous. However, employees organizing the inventory of a Kentucky museum were in for a shock when they discovered a Japanese hand grenade from World War II.

The incident took place at the Behringer-Crawford Museum, a local history museum in Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The venue is gearing up to celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, and staffers were sifting through its collection in preparation for the festivities when they stumbled upon the 80-year-old weapon.

“When I feel complacent and like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing else that’s going to surprise me,’ we find a Japanese grenade,” says Jason French, the museum’s longtime curator, to Spectrum News 1’s Ryan Hayes-Owens.

Though the weapon had been housed in the museum for a long time, staffers weren’t sure whether it could pose a threat to public safety. So, they called the police.

“I was not able to really tell if it was a dummy grenade or not with my initial looking, so that’s kind of how we ended up having to call some experts in,” adds French.

Members of the bomb squad from nearby Cincinnati responded and briefly blocked off the area surrounding the museum, reports WCPO’s Felicia Jordan. Ultimately, however, police determined the grenade was inactive and safe.

“We’re going to deem it as the worst-case scenario until we can rule otherwise,” Patrick Averbeck, a battalion chief with the Covington Fire Department, tells WLWT’s Emily Sanderson. “So we assume that it’s live until we have people on there that can tell us otherwise. And then that way that’s the best for the safety of everybody involved.”

The artifact is what’s known as a Type 97 hand grenade, which were made of serrated cast iron to “ensure maximum fragmentation” at the time of detonation, according to the Imperial War Museums in London.

Type 97 grenades were typically filled with the explosive chemical compound TNT and weighed about a pound. Measuring nearly two inches in diameter and nearly four inches long, the grenades were equipped with a time-delayed fuse that gave the thrower between four and five seconds to get to safety.

This is not the first time a Japanese grenade has turned up unexpectedly. Last February, a resident of Mercer Island, Washington, found a Type 97 hand grenade while cleaning out their father’s house. Police responded and turned over the device to specialists. In September, an exploded Japanese grenade was discovered during a construction project at the U.S. Air Force base in Guam. Two battles with Japanese forces took place in Guam during WWII—one in 1941 and the other in 1944, per Stars and Stripes’ Brian McElhiney.

About a month later, a woman in Westlake, Ohio, was cleaning out a closet after her husband died when she found a Japanese Type 89 knee mortar and a Japanese Type 97 hand grenade. Police removed them safely from the home, as WKYC’s Justin McMullen reported at the time.

Now that the grenade has been cleared, museum staffers say they hope to use it in some future exhibition—possibly one that explores the history of Kentucky veterans.

“We take the safety of our staff, visitors and community very seriously,” Laurie Risch, executive director at the Behringer-Crawford Museum, tells WKRC. “After it was cleared by authorities, we’re pleased to confirm that this fascinating piece of history is safe and will be available for display in future exhibits.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.