Hakata Port Repatriation Memorial

The Hakata Port Repatriation Memorial, formally titled "Nanotsu Oukan" (那の津往還), stands at the Central Wharf in Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, approximately 6.6 million Japanese soldiers and civilians remained stranded across Asia and the Pacific. The Japanese government designated multiple ports as repatriation centers, and Hakata Port in northern Kyushu became one of the most important.

Over a period of approximately one year and five months following the war's end, some 1.39 million Japanese civilians and demobilized soldiers returned through Hakata Port, primarily from China's northeastern provinces (Manchuria) and the Korean Peninsula. Simultaneously, approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans and Chinese who had been living in Japan — many of whom had been brought as conscripted laborers during the war — departed from Hakata to return to their homelands. The Hakata Regional Repatriation Center (博多引揚援護局), a bureau under the Ministry of Welfare, managed these massive population movements, establishing medical inspection stations and processing facilities at the port.

The repatriation process was fraught with hardship. Many returnees arrived malnourished and ill after grueling journeys across war-torn territories. The nearby Futsukaichi Rest Home was established specifically to care for Japanese women who had been sexually assaulted during the chaos of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The scale of human movement through Hakata Port was staggering — it handled more repatriates than almost any other Japanese port.

The memorial monument was completed on March 28, 1996, designed and sculpted by internationally acclaimed artist Toyofuku Tomonori (1925–2019). Standing 15 meters tall and 17 meters long, the weathering steel sculpture depicts the despair of defeat and the hope for life that subsequently emerged. The crimson figure atop the ship-like form represents hope for Hakata Port, historically known as "Nanotsu." The work received the 1996 Fukuoka City Urban Landscape Award.

Today, the monument serves as a centerpiece for remembrance. The Fukuoka City government maintains a permanent exhibition titled "Repatriation Port Hakata" (引揚港・博多) at the Fukuoka City Citizens' Welfare Plaza (Fukufuku Plaza) in Chūō Ward, preserving the stories of those who passed through the port and educating future generations about this critical chapter of postwar Japanese history.