Completion of Sasebo Naval District Victory Memorial Hall (May 1923)

During the First World War Japan, at Britain's request, sent a squadron to the Mediterranean to escort Allied convoys. The Second Special Squadron was formed in February 1917 under Rear Adm. Sato Kozo with the cruiser Akashi as flagship and two destroyer divisions totalling eight destroyers; based at Malta, it carried out 348 escort missions covering about 788 ships before it was stood down in July 1919. On 11 June 1917 the destroyer Sakaki was torpedoed off Crete and 59 of her crew were killed. Many of the squadron's ships belonged to the Sasebo Naval District, and after the war it was proposed to build a hall at Sasebo in commemoration.

Under the leadership of construction committee chairman Suganuma Shujiro, the memorial hall was built with donations from twelve prefectures within the Sasebo Naval District's jurisdiction (Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa) and completed in May 1923 in what is now Hirase-cho, Sasebo. The two-storey building, with a building area of 826 square metres, featured a symmetrical facade with gable end facing forward, full-height columns, brick exterior walls with reinforced concrete interior columns, and elaborate geometric ornamentation; the interior is finished in white and the original stage survives.

It served as the primary venue for naval ceremonies and commemorative events at the Sasebo Naval District, and in wartime for joint naval funerals: one was held there on 13 April 1939, described in general accounts as the joint funeral for the crew of the submarine I-63, lost in an accident. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the building was requisitioned by US forces and used as a dance hall and cinema for service personnel.

The building was returned in 1977 and, after refurbishment by the city, has been open since 1982 as the Sasebo Citizens' Cultural Hall, used for rehearsals and performances of drama and music. It was registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1997 and underwent major seismic-strengthening work in 2014-2015 at a cost of about 469 million yen. In 2016 it was recognised as a component of the Japan Heritage story of the four naval districts (Yokosuka, Kure, Sasebo and Maizuru), and the interior is normally open to visitors.