Tachiarai Army Airfield

Tachiarai Army Airfield was established in October 1919 in what is now Chikuzen Town, Fukuoka Prefecture. The site was selected by the Imperial Japanese Army for three strategic reasons: its location as a relay point for air units heading to mainland China, its distance from the coast (protecting it from enemy naval gunfire), and its vast, flat terrain ideal for aviation operations. By 1937, the airfield had expanded to cover 3.94 million square meters, and it was touted as the largest military airfield in East Asia (東洋一).

The Tachiarai Army Flight School opened in 1940 and rapidly became the Imperial Army's premier pilot training facility. At its peak, the school operated 18 branch campuses spanning Kyushu, Okayama, Kyoto, and even the Korean Peninsula. Thousands of young men received their flight training at Tachiarai before being deployed to combat zones across the Pacific. From 1929 to 1936, the airfield also accommodated civilian aviation operations.

During the final months of World War II, Tachiarai became a critical staging base for kamikaze operations. Many pilots who flew one-way missions from forward bases at Chiran, Kanoya, and other southern Kyushu airfields had received their training at Tachiarai. On May 25, 1945, a direct kamikaze sortie was launched from the airfield itself, using modified Mitsubishi Ki-67 bombers equipped with special "Sakura" explosive payloads.

On March 27, 1945, waves of American B-29 bombers attacked Tachiarai in six successive raids, dropping nearly 1,000 bombs. The assault killed several hundred to about 1,000 people (figures vary by source), including 31 pupils of Tateishi National School (32 by some counts) who had taken shelter in the nearby Tonta Forest on their way home from the end-of-term ceremony. A second major raid followed on March 31. By April 1945, the airfield was completely destroyed, though kamikaze operations continued from dispersal sites until the war's end.

The airfield site is now largely agricultural land. The former main gate still stands as a historical marker. The Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum, opened nearby in 2009, preserves the memory of the base and displays approximately 1,800 wartime artifacts, including a restored Nakajima Ki-27 fighter and a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.