Why does Java allow type-unsafe Array assignments?

Question

Generally, Java can be considered as a type-safe language. I know that there are some flaws with generics, but I recently came across a Problem I never had before. To break

Answer 1

"Because it has to".

To elaborate a bit, consider the following example:

Object[] objects = null;
if (something) {
    objects = new Integer[10];
} else {
    objects = new String[10];
}

Now, how would the Java compiler know which assignments to allow and which to refuse? It can't. The compile-time type is Object so the compiler will let you put any Object in your array, simply because it doesn't have any knowledge of the runtime type of your array.