Yokaren Peace Memorial Museum

The Yokaren Peace Memorial Museum (予科練平和記念館) opened on February 2, 2010, in Ami, Ibaraki Prefecture, on the site of the former Tsuchiura Naval Air Corps base. It preserves the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Naval Aviator Preparatory Course (海軍飛行予科練習生, abbreviated Yokaren), one of the most poignant chapters of Japan's wartime experience.

The Yokaren program was established in 1930 at the Yokosuka Navy Air Corps. Boys between fourteen-and-a-half and seventeen years old were selected through highly competitive national examinations — in the early years, only about 1 in 73 applicants passed. The program aimed to cultivate elite flight crews as the Imperial Navy rapidly expanded its air capabilities. In 1939, as trainee numbers surged, the program transferred to the Kasumigaura Navy Air Corps in Ami. The following year, the Tsuchiura Navy Air Corps was established as an independent facility specializing exclusively in Yokaren training. Ami thus became the heart of Japan's naval aviation youth training.

Over 15 years, approximately 240,000 boys entered the program. Of these, 24,000 completed the rigorous curriculum and deployed as combat pilots. As the war turned against Japan in 1944–1945, many Yokaren graduates — some barely out of training — were assigned to tokko (特攻, special attack / kamikaze) units. About 80 percent of all Yokaren graduates perished in combat. The youngest were teenagers who had spent only months in accelerated wartime training before being sent on one-way missions.

The museum's exhibition follows the path of a Yokaren trainee chronologically: visitors pass through rooms depicting the screening and selection process, classroom-style training, barracks life, and finally the "Front Line Room" displaying pilot equipment, model aircraft, and the stark reality of combat deployment. A dedicated reading room allows visitors to study letters and diaries written by the young trainees — many addressed to their parents, composed in the knowledge they would not return.

Adjacent to the museum is the Yūshō-en (雄翔園), a memorial garden containing a monument to approximately 19,000 Yokaren trainees who died during the war. The Yūshō-kan (雄翔館), a companion hall within the garden, displays their last testaments, farewell letters, and personal effects. The museum also houses photographs by renowned photographer Ken Domon, who documented the Yokaren trainees during the war years.

The Kasumigaura Navy Air Corps had been established in Ami at the end of the Taishō era (around 1922) and was considered the finest air station in East Asia. The arrival of Yokaren transformed Ami into a garrison town deeply intertwined with naval aviation. Today, the museum and memorial garden serve as a solemn reminder of the wartime mobilization of Japan's youth and stand as a plea for peace.