Yanagimoto Airfield (Yamato Naval Air Group Yamato Base)

Yanagimoto Airfield (柳本飛行場), officially designated as the Yamato Naval Air Group Yamato Base (大和海軍航空隊大和基地), was an Imperial Japanese Navy airfield located in what was then Yanagimoto-chō, Shiki-gun, Nara Prefecture (present-day Kishida-chō and Nagara-chō, Tenri City). According to the Tenri human-rights education society, surveying began in the summer of 1942, land leveling commenced in 1943, and formal construction started on September 15, 1944 (the Japanese Wikipedia chronology puts the start of full-scale construction in June 1944).

The airfield was originally planned to support the Nara Naval Air Corps (奈良海軍航空隊), a flight preparatory trainee (Yokaren) education unit. Four runways were planned across approximately 300 hectares of farmland between Nagara Station and Yanagimoto Station on what is now the JR Manyo Mahoroba Line. Construction was rushed using mobilized labor including local students, Japanese orphans, and workers conscripted from the Korean Peninsula.

Only one runway — measuring 1,500 meters long and 100 meters wide (with only the central 50 meters paved in concrete) — was completed when the base became operational in February 1945. The Second Miho Naval Air Corps transferred from Tottori Prefecture and was redesignated as the Yamato Naval Air Corps. On March 1, 1945, the Nara Naval Air Corps became an independent unit, and its trainees were put to work on the upkeep of the airfield. The Yamato group had flown in 54 training aircraft from Miho in February, and a fighter unit moved to Yanagimoto in July 1945.

In July 1945, the base was elevated to host the headquarters of the Kinki Naval Air Corps (近畿海軍航空隊), one of the Navy's "Otsu" base-support air units. Plans are also said to have existed for the relocation of the Third Air Fleet headquarters and even the Navy Section of Imperial General Headquarters to the area, in preparation for Operation Ketsu-Go — the defense against anticipated Allied landings on the Kii Peninsula. These plans reflected the strategic importance of Nara's inland location, shielded by mountains from direct naval bombardment.

The base was never attacked by Allied forces and saw no combat before Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945. In October 1946, U.S. occupation forces transferred control of the site back to Japan. The land was returned to original owners or sold, and most of the airfield reverted to agricultural use. Land improvement projects over the decades have erased most surface traces.

Two concrete air raid shelters remain as the most significant surviving structures. The northern shelter has three entrances and is currently used for agricultural storage; wartime earth camouflage has been removed, revealing ventilation pipes. The southern shelter has four entrances and three interior rooms, still covered with earth resembling an ancient kofun burial mound; markings reference a "telegraph room" (電信室), suggesting it served as an officer command facility. Approximately 800 meters of the original runway survive as a local road, with original concrete still partially exposed.

In 2025, Tenri City Mayor Namikawa Ken announced plans to preserve the air raid shelters as designated war heritage sites, purchasing the surrounding land to develop access roads and parking areas. The site has also been the subject of historical debate regarding explanatory signage about wartime Korean forced labor. A separate JASDF Nara Base (航空自衛隊奈良基地) exists in Nara City proper as an officer training facility, which is located at a different site and should not be confused with this airfield.