Kawagoe, Japan What was once a desperate measure of wartime ingenuity has become art to some Japanese citizens. Residents in an area just outside of Tokyo have transformed ceramic grenade casings into flower vases and garden decor.

When iron supplies began to run low during WWII, Japan's military ordered potters across the country to make grenades. Today, thousands of the ceramic casings litter Kawagoe city's Kugedo neighborhood, where a one such munitions factory made the grenades for the imperial armed forces.

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Hereford, England British Army EOD from Ashchurch Troop, 721 EOD squadron, 11 EOD and Search Regiment carried out a controlled explosion of a WWII bomb in the parking lot of a racecourse in Hereford. According to the Ministry of Defense, a 29mm Spigot Mortar (anti-tank weapon) was found in nearby. West Mercia Police requested the EOD response, and the area was cordoned off.

After residents were evacuated from the area, the team conducted a controlled explosion in the racecourse parking lot. "The bomb wasn't actually found on our site," said Hereford's general manager Camilla Esling.

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Kihei, Hawai'I A high explosive (HE) mortar was found on the property of a Kihei recycling company, according to the Maui Police Department. Employees found the UXO in the metals collection area of the plant. Hawai'i Inter-Island Bomb Squad Maui unit responded, and the munition was relocated to the end of the property in an open field area, away from machinery and containers.

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Invergordon, Scotland A group of metal detectorists set off a series of emergency responses after finding a UXO near a school. The discovery was made at a former air raid shelter and led to homes being evacuated and three schools in Invergordon in the Highlands being closed as a precaution.

Ryan Junor and his son Shay were part of a group searching for old artifacts when they made the shocking discovery. "We certainly weren't looking for bombs," he said.

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Kaiserslautern, Germany The discovery of a 550-pound WWII bomb on a construction site led to a large-scale evacuation in downtown Kaiserslautern, home to multiple U.S. bases and the largest overseas American military community.

Police and emergency workers evacuated residents in a 300-meter radius around the site, and an EOD team responded to defuse the UXO. The disposal team quickly removed one detonator from the bomb, but a second detonator was deformed because of the excavation, according to a city statement. That delayed disposal until further materials could be delivered to the site, city officials said.

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Round Lake Beach, Illinois Police were called to a Goodwill store after an employee found a hand grenade while going through donations at the store. The store was evacuated, and the Waukegan Bomb Squad was called in to x-ray the device for explosives.

According to police, the grenade had been hollowed out but plugged, so they were not sure if it was live initially. The bomb squad did deem it inert and safely removed the device. Police Chief Wayne Wilde urged anyone who needs to discard old munitions to contact police, not take them to Goodwill.