All historic sites
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417 sites · page 12 of 18
Tsushima Fortress
対馬要塞
Massive coastal fortress complex spanning the entire Tsushima Island in the Korea Strait, constructed from 1887 to defend against Russian naval threats. Comprising 31 battery positions armed with weapons ranging from 12cm cannons to the world-class 40cm guns of the Toyo Battery, it formed the frontline of Japan's strait-blocking defense network alongside Iki Fortress and Shimonoseki Fortress. Active through the Russo-Japanese War and WWII, most batteries were dismantled by American forces post-war, with impressive ruins remaining across the island.
Ueno Station Underground Passage (War Orphans)
上野駅地下道（戦災孤児聚集地）
The underground passages of Ueno Station (上野駅) in Taito Ward, Tokyo, became the largest gathering point for war orphans (戦災孤児/戦争浮浪児) in postwar Japan. Following the devastating Tokyo air raids of 1944–1945, which killed over 100,000 civilians and left vast swathes of the city in ashes, an estimated 123,500 children nationwide were orphaned. Over a thousand of these children — known as "eki no ko" (駅の子, station children) — congregated in Ueno Station's underground corridors, sleeping on stone-paved floors, begging, shining shoes, collecting cigarette butts, and scavenging to survive. The government's 1948 survey acknowledged the scale of the crisis, yet orphanages could accommodate only about 12,000 children. Many orphans died of starvation, disease, and exposure in the tunnels. The "Ah! Ueno Station" (あゝ上野駅) song monument, erected in 2003 near the Hirokoji Exit, commemorates the collective memory of wartime displacement and postwar hardship at this station.
Ukishima Maru Victims Memorial
浮島丸殉難の碑
A memorial monument in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, commemorating the victims of the Ukishima Maru Incident of August 24, 1945, when a Japanese Navy transport ship carrying Korean repatriates exploded and sank in Maizuru Bay just nine days after Japan's surrender, killing 524 Koreans and 25 Japanese crew members. The cause — whether an American mine or deliberate scuttling — remains disputed to this day.
Usa Naval Air Base Ruins
宇佐海軍航空基地跡
The best-preserved WWII naval air base ruin complex in Kyushu, with approximately 10 concrete aircraft revetments (entaigo) still standing amid rice paddies. Established in 1939 as a training base for carrier-based attack and dive-bomber crews, it later became a kamikaze staging base whose special attack units sortied in April 1945 — 81 planes and 154 airmen never returned. The devastating April 21, 1945 air raid killed over 320 personnel in just 11 minutes. The Jōi No. 1 Revetment, a city-designated historic site, and the Usa City Peace Memorial Museum now anchor the preservation effort.
Utsunomiya Air Raid Site
宇都宮空襲跡
The site of the devastating firebombing of Utsunomiya on the night of July 12, 1945, when 133 B-29 Superfortresses dropped 802.9 tons of incendiary bombs on the city center, destroying 43.6% of the urban area, killing 628 civilians, and rendering nearly 48,000 people homeless.
Wakayama Air Raid Site
和歌山大空襲跡
Site of the devastating July 9, 1945 firebombing of Wakayama City by 108 B-29 bombers that dropped over 800 tons of incendiary bombs, destroying more than half the city, killing 1,208 people, and burning Wakayama Castle — a designated National Treasure — to the ground.
Wakkanai Naval Communications Base (Red Brick Communications Station)
旧海軍大湊通信隊稚内分遣隊幕別送信所（赤れんが通信所）
A former Imperial Japanese Navy communications base in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, established in 1931 as a transmitter station for northern defense. Directly linked to Navy General Headquarters, the station relayed the coded Pearl Harbor attack order "Niitakayama Nobore 1208" in December 1941, received General Kuribayashi's final message from Iwo Jima in March 1945, and remained in contact with the northern front through the end of the war. The distinctive red brick buildings, completed in 1941, were designated Wakkanai Municipal Cultural Properties in 2023.
Washington Heights Site (Yoyogi Park)
ワシントンハイツ跡（代々木公園）
Site of the largest U.S. military dependent housing complex in occupied Japan, built in 1946 on the former Imperial Japanese Army Yoyogi Parade Ground. The 92.4-hectare compound housed 827 family units with schools, churches, and theaters. Returned to Japan in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics, it is now Yoyogi Park and the National Gymnasium.
Yamamoto Isoroku Memorial Museum
山本五十六記念館
A memorial museum in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, dedicated to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943), Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet and architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Born in Nagaoka as Isoroku Takano into a samurai family of Confucian scholars, Yamamoto rose to become Japan's most prominent naval strategist. The museum, operated by the NPO Yamamoto Gensui Keigyo-kai, displays personal effects, wartime correspondence, his subscriptions to National Geographic, and the recovered left wing of the Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber in which he was killed over Bougainville on April 18, 1943 during Operation Vengeance. Nagaoka itself was devastated by a massive firebombing raid on August 1, 1945, when 125 B-29 Superfortresses dropped 925 tons of incendiary bombs, killing 1,488 people by Nagaoka City's count and destroying over 65% of the urban area.
Yokohama Commonwealth War Cemetery
横浜英連邦戦死者墓地
Yokohama War Cemetery in Hodogaya-ku is the only Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Japan, holding the remains of 1,555 Allied servicemen — primarily British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and Indian personnel who died as prisoners of war in Japanese captivity during World War II. Constructed after the war by the Australian War Graves group, the cemetery also houses a shrine containing an urn with the ashes of 335 soldiers, sailors, and airmen from Commonwealth nations, the United States, and the Netherlands. The site, a former children's recreation ground requisitioned in 1946, has been visited by Queen Elizabeth II (1975), Princess Diana (1995), and Prince William (2015).
Yosami Radio Transmitting Station
依佐美送信所
One of the world's largest VLF (Very Low Frequency) radio transmitting stations, built in 1929 in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture with eight 250-meter steel towers and German-made Telefunken high-frequency generators. The station established Japan's first wireless communications with Europe and was employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII for submarine communications. It is believed to have relayed the coded Pearl Harbor attack order "Niitakayama Nobore 1208" via VLF on December 2, 1941. After the war, the station was requisitioned by the US Navy and operated until 1993. The towers were demolished in 1997 and station buildings in 2006. The site is now Floral Garden Yosami, with a memorial museum preserving the original transmitting equipment. Recognized as an IEEE Milestone in 2009.
18th Infantry Regiment Barracks Site (Toyohashi Park)
歩兵第十八連隊兵営跡（豊橋公園）
The former Yoshida Castle grounds housed the 18th Infantry Regiment from 1885 until the end of the Pacific War. Gates, a sentry post and other military remains survive in today's public Toyohashi Park.
20th Infantry Regiment Site (Camp Fukuchiyama and Historical Museum)
歩兵第二十聯隊跡（福知山駐屯地・垣将集館）
The former barracks of the 20th Infantry Regiment remain in military use at Camp Fukuchiyama. An officers' assembly building dating from the regiment's 1898 arrival survives as a historical museum, accessible by advance arrangement.
2nd Naval Gunpowder Arsenal Ruins
第二海軍火薬廠跡
Ruins of the Imperial Japanese Navy's principal gunpowder, propellant, and explosives manufacturing arsenal in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Originally established in 1905 as a British-capital venture (Nihon Kayaku Seizō K.K.) by Armstrong, Nobel and a third British firm (given as Chilworth or as Vickers, depending on the source) to produce British MD cordite for the IJN, the factory was purchased outright by the Navy in 1919 and designated the Naval Gunpowder Arsenal (海軍火薬廠). In 1941 it was reorganized as the 2nd Naval Gunpowder Arsenal (第二海軍火薬廠) as part of a three-arsenal system — with the 1st at Funaoka (Miyagi) and the 3rd at Maizuru (Kyoto). Covering approximately 380,000 tsubo (1.26 million m²), its seven plants produced smokeless powder for guns and rockets, nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, machine-gun propellant and the acids needed to make them. The facility was devastated during the Hiratsuka air raid of 16–17 July 1945 by 138 B-29 bombers dropping about 1,173 tons of incendiary bombs. After Japan's surrender, the site was occupied by Allied forces until 1950, then transferred primarily to Yokohama Rubber Company, which still operates its Hiratsuka Manufacturing Plant on the grounds. The surviving Western-style building of about 1912 — built by the Anglo-Japanese powder company and later used as the naval officers' club — was donated to Hiratsuka City and relocated to Hachimanyama Park in 2009 as the registered tangible cultural property "八幡山の洋館" (Hachimanyama no Yōkan).
A-bombed Camphor Trees of Sanno Shrine
山王神社被爆クスノキ
Two ancient camphor trees (kusunoki), variously estimated at 400 to 600 years old, that survived the Nagasaki atomic bombing on August 9, 1945, despite standing only 800 meters from the hypocenter. Stripped of all branches and leaves by the blast, the charred trunks sprouted new buds within two months, becoming enduring symbols of life, resilience, and peace in post-war Nagasaki. Designated as natural monuments by Nagasaki City, their rustling leaves were selected as one of Japan's "100 Soundscapes Worth Preserving."
Akae Airfield Revetments
掩体壕群・赤江飛行場跡
Surviving WWII aircraft revetments from the former Imperial Japanese Navy Akae Airfield in Miyazaki City. Seven concrete shelters remain from the approximately 50 originally built in 1944, making them among the best-preserved examples in Japan. The airfield served as a major staging base for kamikaze operations during the final months of the war.
Army Aviation Maintenance School
陸軍航空整備学校
The Imperial Japanese Army's central institution for training aviation maintenance personnel, established in 1938 at Tokorozawa Airfield in Saitama Prefecture. Created by transferring maintenance training from the Army Aviation Technical School, the school educated officer candidates, non-commissioned officers, and youth aviation soldiers (少年航空兵) in aircraft maintenance and repair. Renamed the Tokorozawa Army Aviation Maintenance School (所沢陸軍航空整備学校) in 1943 when a sister school opened at Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture. The school operated until February 1945, when it was reorganized into the 3rd Air Training Corps (第3航空教育団). Its legacy is preserved at Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park, where the Youth Aviation Soldier Statue (少年航空兵像) — originally erected on the school grounds in 1944 — still stands.
Asahihama Coastal Pillboxes
旭浜のトーチカ群
Concrete coastal defenses built near the end of the Pacific War survive along Asahihama in Taiki. The group includes beach remains and a preserved pillbox discovered in a town-owned forest.
Ashiya Air Field
芦屋飛行場
An Imperial Japanese Army airfield in Fukuoka Prefecture, built around 1940 and established as an Army air base by 1942, used for fighter interception of B-29 raids and as a staging base for Army kamikaze (Shinbu-tai) special attack sorties during the final months of WWII. Now the JASDF Ashiya Air Base.
Aso Mining Yoshikuma Coal Mine Ruins
麻生鉱業吉隈炭鉱跡
Ruins of the Yoshikuma coal mine in the Chikuho coalfield, operated by Aso Mining (麻生鉱業), the family company of the Aso political dynasty. During WWII, approximately 300 Allied POWs (197 Australian, 101 British, 2 Dutch) were held at Fukuoka POW Branch Camp #26 from May to August 1945 and forced to work underground. Two Australian POWs—John Watson and Leslie Edgar George Wilkie—died at the mine. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 10,000 Korean laborers were also mobilized to work in Aso Mining's pits under harsh conditions.
Cenotaph for Seikan Ferry Disaster Victims
青函連絡船海難者殉難碑
A cenotaph erected in August 1953 on the slopes of Mount Hakodate to memorialize the Seikan ferry crew members killed in the devastating US carrier air raids of July 14-15, 1945, which sank or disabled all 12 ferries operating between Aomori and Hakodate, severing Hokkaido's vital supply line to Honshu.
February 26 Incident Memorial Statue
二・二六事件慰霊像
A statue of Kannon (Buddhist goddess of mercy) erected in 1965 at the former site of the Tokyo Army Military Prison in Shibuya, where 15 of the officers and civilians condemned for the February 26 Incident were executed by firing squad on July 12, 1936, and four more on August 19, 1937. The memorial, commissioned by the Busshinkai (an organization of bereaved families), commemorates both the executed officers and all victims of the incident. It stands adjacent to the Shibuya Government Building complex, south of the NHK Broadcasting Center.
Former 32nd Infantry Regiment Barracks Site (Kajō Park)
旧歩兵第三十二連隊兵営跡（霞城公園）
The former garrison site of the Imperial Japanese Army 32nd Infantry Regiment, located within the Ninomaru (second bailey) of Yamagata Castle (also known as Kajō, "Mist Castle"). The regiment was formed at Akita in 1896 and brought to Yamagata in 1898, after the city purchased the castle grounds and donated them to the Army; it kept the castle as its home garrison for nearly half a century until Japan's surrender in 1945. The 32nd Regiment fought in every major conflict of modern Japan — the Russo-Japanese War, the Siberian Intervention, the invasion of Manchuria, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and ultimately the Battle of Okinawa, where the regiment was virtually annihilated. After the war, the military land was transferred to Yamagata City and opened in 1949 as Kajō Park. Today the park preserves the reconstructed Ninomaru Higashi-Ōtemon Gate (1991), the Honmaru Ichimonji Gate, stone monument markers for the 32nd Regiment, and approximately 1,500 cherry trees originally planted by returning soldiers in 1906. It remains one of the most significant former military garrison sites in the Tōhoku region.
Former Army Provisions Depot (Fukagawa)
旧陸軍糧秣本廠跡（深川）
The headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's provisions supply system, established in 1897 on the former Etchujima drill ground in Fukagawa, Koto Ward, Tokyo. The depot was responsible for the procurement, manufacture, storage, and distribution of food for soldiers and fodder for military horses across the entire army. Operating from the Meiji era through Japan's defeat in 1945, it was the central node in a nationwide network of branch depots including Ujina (Hiroshima, 1903) and Osaka (1908). The site at Etchujima 1-chome is now occupied by the Yamatane Corporation warehouse complex, with no original military structures remaining above ground.