Ichigaya (Army Ministry / General Staff HQ)

Ichigaya Heights (市ヶ谷台) served as the supreme command center of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, from December 1941, when the Army Ministry and General Staff moved here from Miyakezaka. The compound housed the Army Ministry (陸軍省), which controlled administrative, supply, and mobilization functions, and the Imperial General Headquarters Army Section (大本営陸軍部), which exercised operational command over all Army forces. The hill had been the home of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy since December 1874; after the academy moved to Zama in 1937 and the preparatory academy to Asaka in 1941, its buildings were taken over by the Army's central organs. From then until the surrender, the Army General Staff Office (参謀本部), established December 1878, directed land operations from this hilltop command. After Japan's surrender, GHQ requisitioned the facility, and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the "Tokyo Trials") was held in the main auditorium from May 1946 to November 1948, trying 28 Class-A war criminals. Post-occupation, the site housed the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Eastern Army HQ from 1960, then the Japan Defense Agency headquarters from 2000, and was elevated to full Ministry of Defense status in 2007. Part of the original building (completed in 1937 as the academy headquarters), including the auditorium, was relocated within the grounds and reconstructed in 1998 as the Ichigaya Memorial Hall.