Return inside try...catch

Question

I realized that, if there is a return inside a try block, both javac and jikes generate exception handlers that do not include the return instruction. For instance, for a code like
try {
   a = 1;
    if (a == 1) {
        a++;
        return;
    a = 2;
catch (Exception e) {
} the compiled code will have two exception handlers: one for the code until a++ and other for a = 2, both branching to the same instruction.
I manually joined the exception handlers in the bytecodes and the code executed as usual. What is the reason for keeping JVM instructions like return, ireturn, and areturn always outside the range protected by an exception handler?

Answer 1

Yes, the finally is confirmed to be executed no matter how you try to avoid it. This is so that the method is able to do cleanup in case of an exception (unhandled situation).
Say an exception occured while you were sending a file through the network. You would want to close the network socket and the file to release system resources before you retry sending it. Or else sooner or later you'll run out of resources! (esp on a server)