All historic sites
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417 sites · page 11 of 18
Sagami Army Arsenal Ruins
相模陸軍造兵廠跡
Site of the Sagami Army Arsenal (1938–1945), one of the Imperial Japanese Army's major ordnance factories in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. The arsenal manufactured tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy weapons, employing up to 30,000 workers at its wartime peak. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the facility was seized by the U.S. Army and converted into the Sagami General Depot, which remains an active American military logistics base today.
Sagami Naval Arsenal Ruins
相模海軍工廠跡
Ruins of the Imperial Japanese Navy's dedicated chemical weapons and pyrotechnics arsenal, established in May 1943 in Samukawa Town, Kanagawa Prefecture. The facility was promoted from the Chemical Research Division of the Naval Technical Research Institute (Hiratsuka) to enable mass production of mustard gas (yperite) bombs, gas masks, and incendiary ordnance. At peak capacity over 3,500 workers — including conscripted laborers, Women's Volunteer Corps members, and mobilized students — operated within the 700,000 m² compound. In 2002, buried mustard gas bottles were discovered at the former site during expressway construction, injuring 11 workers and confirming the enduring contamination legacy.
Sakai Air Raid Site
堺大空襲跡
Site of the devastating firebombing of Sakai City on July 10, 1945, when 116 B-29 bombers dropped approximately 13,000 incendiary bombs (778.9 tons) over ninety minutes, burning about 62% of the old city area. Sakai City's figures record 1,860 deaths, more than 18,000 houses burned and some 70,000 people left homeless; another tally gives 1,370 dead. Today, the Sakai Peace Tower in Daisen Park and multiple memorial stones throughout the city commemorate the victims.
Sannō Shrine One-Legged Torii Gate
山王神社一本柱鳥居
The iconic one-legged torii gate of Sannō Shrine in Nagasaki, located approximately 800 meters southeast of the atomic bomb hypocenter. The blast of August 9, 1945 sheared away one pillar and half the crossbeam, yet the remaining half has stood in precarious balance ever since — an enduring symbol of the Nagasaki atomic bombing. Designated a National Historic Site as part of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Ruins in 2016.
Sarushima (Monkey Island) — Tokyo Bay Fortress Battery Ruins
猿島（東京湾要塞跡 猿島砲台跡）
The largest natural island in Tokyo Bay, Sarushima served as Japan's first daiba (battery island) from 1847 and was developed into a full coastal defense fortress between 1881 and 1884. Featuring remarkably preserved Meiji-era brick tunnels built in Flemish bond, ammunition magazines, and gun battery emplacements, the island was armed with anti-aircraft guns during WWII in 1941. After the war, American forces dismantled all functional military equipment. Designated a National Historic Site in 2015, the uninhabited island is now accessible by a 10-minute ferry from Yokosuka and is celebrated for its atmospheric brick-lined passages overgrown with vegetation, often compared to Studio Ghibli's Laputa.
Second Naval Fuel Depot (Yokkaichi)
第二海軍燃料廠
The Second Naval Fuel Depot (第二海軍燃料廠) in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture was Imperial Japan's largest oil refinery, with a daily capacity of 25,000 barrels. Established in 1941 in the Shiohama district, it produced aviation gasoline, liquid fuels, and lubricating oil for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The facility and its associated Utsube River Oil Refinery were ranked first among Japan's aviation fuel production centers by 1945. From June to August 1945, US B-29 bombers of the 315th Bombardment Wing conducted repeated precision raids that destroyed the refinery complex. Yokkaichi itself was firebombed on June 18, 1945, killing 736 civilians. After the war, the site was converted to civilian petrochemical use and became the foundation of the Yokkaichi industrial kombinat.
Seikan Ferry Wartime Disaster Site (Tsugaru Strait)
青函連絡船戦時遭難地（津軽海峡）
On July 14-15, 1945, US Navy Task Force 38 carrier aircraft attacked the Tsugaru Strait and destroyed virtually the entire Seikan ferry fleet — sinking or disabling all 12 operating ferries, killing over 400 crew and passengers, and severing Hokkaido's vital coal supply line to Honshu in one of the most strategically devastating air attacks of the Pacific War.
Sendai Air Raid Site
仙台空襲跡
The site of the devastating firebombing of Sendai on July 10, 1945, when 123 B-29 bombers destroyed five square kilometers of the city center — the largest city in the Tohoku region and headquarters of the IJA 2nd Division. Over 1,000 civilians were killed and nearly 12,000 buildings burned in the two-hour incendiary attack.
Sendai City War Reconstruction Memorial Hall
仙台市戦災復興記念館
A memorial museum opened in April 1981 in Aoba Ward, Sendai, dedicated to preserving records of the July 10, 1945 firebombing of Sendai and the city's postwar reconstruction. The permanent exhibition documents how 123 B-29 bombers destroyed five square kilometers of the city center, killing over 1,000 civilians and burning 11,933 buildings. The hall also serves as a civic cultural facility with a 270-seat auditorium.
Shiden Kai Exhibition Hall
紫電改展示館
The only museum in Japan displaying an authentic Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai ("Violet Lightning") fighter, salvaged in 1979 from the seabed of Kura Bay where it had lain since being ditched during combat on July 24, 1945. The aircraft belonged to the elite 343rd Naval Air Group.
Shimonoseki Fortress (Hinoyama Battery)
下関要塞跡（火の山砲台）
Meiji-era coastal fortress complex guarding the strategic Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kyushu. The Hinoyama Battery, perched atop 268-meter Mount Hinoyama, was armed with 28cm howitzers and 24cm cannons to prevent enemy fleets from entering the Seto Inland Sea. During WWII, the fortress was upgraded with anti-aircraft defenses to protect the vital Kokura industrial zone, and the Kanmon Strait became the primary target of the devastating American B-29 Operation Starvation mine-laying campaign in 1945. Designated a JSCE Civil Engineering Heritage site.
Shiraume Memorial Tower (Shiraume Student Nurse Corps)
白梅之塔（白梅学徒隊慰霊碑）
The Shiraume Memorial Tower (白梅之塔) in Itoman City, Okinawa, commemorates the Shiraume Student Nurse Corps (白梅学徒隊), composed of 46 fourth-year students from Okinawa Prefectural Second Girls' High School who were mobilized as auxiliary nurses for the Imperial Japanese Army's 24th Division First Field Hospital during the Battle of Okinawa. Twenty-two of the students perished during the battle, many killed during the chaotic retreat southward after the hospital was dissolved on June 4, 1945. Originally erected as a simple stone marker in January 1948, the memorial was rebuilt in 1951 and renovated to its current form in 1992. The site marks the location of a natural cave (gama) in the Maesato district where surviving students took shelter during the final days of the battle. Though less internationally known than the Himeyuri Student Corps from a different school, the Shiraume Corps represents one of nine female student mobilization units in Okinawa and stands as an important testament to the tragic wartime exploitation of young women.
Shizuoka Air Raid Site
静岡大空襲跡
Site of the devastating June 19, 1945 firebombing of Shizuoka by 137 B-29 bombers of the USAAF 314th Bombardment Wing. The two-wave incendiary attack dropped 13,211 bombs, destroying 66.1% of the city center, killing about 1,950 civilians (1,952 in the most widely cited count) and injuring between 5,000 and 12,000 depending on the source. Shizuoka was targeted as the 15th largest Japanese city and a key point on the Tokaido corridor linking Tokyo and Osaka.
Site of the Army Youth Pilot School, Tokorozawa
陸軍少年飛行兵学校跡
The site where the Imperial Japanese Army's youth pilot training system was born in 1934. The Tokorozawa Army Flying School began accepting teenage boys (initially aged 15 to under 19) as aviation cadets (少年飛行兵) to train them as pilots, navigators, and maintenance technicians for the Army Air Service. As Japan's war losses mounted, the program expanded dramatically from 170 initial recruits to thousands per cohort, eventually producing over 45,000 young airmen across multiple schools by war's end in 1945. Today the former school grounds are part of Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park, where the Youth Aviation Soldier Statue (少年航空兵像) stands as a memorial to the teenage cadets who served.
Takamatsu Air Raid Site
高松空襲跡
Site of the devastating firebombing of Takamatsu City on July 4, 1945, when 116 B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped over 800 tons of incendiary munitions, destroying approximately 80% of the urban area and killing 1,359 people — the worst air raid damage suffered by any city in Shikoku during World War II.
Tateyama Naval Air Group Ruins (Akayama Underground Tunnels)
館山海軍航空隊跡（赤山地下壕跡）
Site of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Tateyama Naval Air Group, established in 1930 at the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula to guard the entrance to Tokyo Bay. The Akayama Underground Tunnels — a massive 1.6 km subterranean complex excavated during the final years of the war — served as a command center, hospital, power station, and aircraft workshop. Designated a Tateyama City historic site, a 250-meter section of the tunnels is open to the public.
Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park & Museum
所沢航空記念公園・所沢航空発祥記念館
The birthplace of Japanese aviation, established in 1911 as Japan's first military airfield. On April 5, 1911, Captain Tokugawa Yoshitoshi piloted a Henri Farman biplane in the inaugural flight from Tokorozawa. The site evolved into the Imperial Japanese Army's central aviation training and research complex, housing the Army Aviation School (1919), the Army Aviation Technical School (1935), and the Army Aviation Maintenance School (1938). During WWII, the airfield served as a key Army Air Force installation; in June 1945, a tokkotai (special attack) unit was formed here. After Japan's surrender, the site was seized by the U.S. military as the Tokorozawa Communications Base. Land was gradually returned from 1971, and the 50.2-hectare Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park opened in 1978, with the Tokorozawa Aviation Museum (所沢航空発祥記念館) inaugurated in 1993.
Tokushima Air Raid Site & Peace Memorial Pagoda
徳島大空襲跡・パゴダ平和記念塔
Site of the devastating firebombing of Tokushima City on July 4, 1945, when 129 B-29 bombers dropped over 1,050 tons of incendiary bombs, destroying 62% of the city and killing approximately 1,000 people. A cenotaph at the Tokushima Castle ruins commemorates the air-raid victims, and the Peace Memorial Pagoda (パゴダ平和記念塔) on the summit of Bizan commemorates the war dead of the Pacific War.
Tokuyama Naval Fuel Depot
徳山海軍燃料廠
One of the Imperial Japanese Navy's principal fuel storage and refining facilities, established in 1905 as a coal briquette plant in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and reorganized as a naval fuel depot in 1921. Redesignated the Third Naval Fuel Depot in 1941, it processed petroleum, aviation fuel, and synthetic fuels for the Combined Fleet. Devastated by B-29 bombing raids on May 10 and July 26-27, 1945, its destruction crippled the Navy's remaining fuel supply. The site was transferred to Idemitsu Kosan in 1956 and now forms the core of the Shunan petrochemical complex.
Tokyo Second Army Arsenal (Itabashi Powder Works)
東京第二陸軍造兵廠（板橋火薬製造所）
Site of the Imperial Japanese Army's Second Tokyo Arsenal, Japan's first government-operated gunpowder factory established in 1876 on the former Kaga Domain estate in Itabashi. The facility produced explosives, propellants, and ammunition components, and housed the Army Explosives Research Institute. Designated a National Historic Site in 2017, the surviving brick structures and ballistic testing tunnels are preserved in Kaga Park.
Tomogashima (Yura Fortress Battery Ruins)
友ヶ島（由良要塞 砲台群跡）
A group of four uninhabited islands in the Kitan Strait between Wakayama and Awaji Island, fortified from 1890 as part of the Yura Fortress system to defend the western entrance to Osaka Bay. The Imperial Japanese Army built five artillery batteries with modern guns on the main island of Okinoshima over a 16-year period. Designated a restricted military zone and erased from maps during WWII, the fortress was never used in combat as war shifted to aerial warfare. Abandoned after 1945, the overgrown brick-and-stone battery ruins — especially the iconic Third Battery — have earned Tomogashima the nickname "Japan's Castle in the Sky" (Laputa). Now part of the Setonaikai National Park.
Toyama Air Raid Site
富山大空襲跡
Site of the August 1-2, 1945 firebombing of Toyama City, in which 174 B-29 bombers dropped 1,465 tons of incendiaries and destroyed 99.5% of the targeted urban area — the highest destruction rate recorded for any Japanese city by conventional bombing in WWII. Estimates of the dead range from about 2,150 to more than 2,700 and virtually the entire population of 110,000 was left homeless.
Tsuchizaki Minato History Museum (Tsuchizaki Air Raid Exhibition)
土崎みなと歴史伝承館（土崎空襲展示室）
The Tsuchizaki Minato History Museum preserves the memory of the Tsuchizaki Air Raid of August 14-15, 1945 — Japan's last aerial bombardment in WWII. On the night Emperor Hirohito had already decided to surrender, 132 B-29 bombers of the 315th Bombardment Wing struck the Nippon Oil Akita Refinery, dropping 12,047 bombs (953.9 tons) over four hours. Over 250 people were killed. The museum's air raid exhibition hall displays a bomb-damaged warehouse column from the refinery, with projection mapping recreating the devastation.
Tsukuba Naval Air Group Site and Former Headquarters
筑波海軍航空隊跡（旧司令部庁舎・記念館）
A surviving naval pilot-training headquarters in Kasama, now a memorial museum. The site traces the transition from flight instruction to wartime combat and special-attack training.