Uzurano Airfield, Kasai (Himeji Naval Air Group / Kawanishi Assembly Plant)

Uzurano Airfield (鶉野飛行場) was constructed in what is now Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture (then Kue and Shimosato villages in Kasai District), opening in October 1943 as the Himeji Naval Air Group (姫路海軍航空隊) base. The facility trained approximately 500 young naval aviators from across Japan, each receiving approximately 30 hours of flight training before assignment to frontline units. In December 1944, Kawanishi Aircraft Company (川西航空機) established an assembly plant on adjacent land to the airfield, producing 486 Shiden (紫電) fighters and 44 Shiden-Kai (紫電改, N1K2-J) fighters. The Shiden-Kai was considered Japan's finest naval fighter, capable of matching the F6F Hellcat. In February 1945, the "Shirasagi Squadron" (白鷺隊) Special Attack Unit was formed at Uzurano, and between April and May 1945, 63 young airmen from this unit were lost in kamikaze sorties against Allied forces during the Okinawa campaign, launching from Kushira Base in Kagoshima. The 1,200-meter runway remains largely intact today and is managed by Kasai City as a historical field museum. A peace memorial (鶉野平和祈念の碑苑) and small aviation museum now mark the site, joined in 2022 by the Sora Kasai facility with full-scale replicas of a Shiden-Kai and a Type 97 carrier attack bomber.