All historic sites
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50 sites · page 2 of 3
Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospital
広島赤十字・原爆病院
A Japanese Red Cross hospital located 1.5 km from the atomic bomb hypocenter in Hiroshima. Despite severe blast damage on August 6, 1945, the reinforced concrete building survived and its staff — more than half of whom had been killed or injured — immediately began treating thousands of victims. ICRC delegate Marcel Junod recorded that 1,000 patients were admitted on the first day alone. In 1956 the world's first hospital specializing in atomic bomb survivor treatment was established on its grounds; the two merged in 1988.
Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum (A-bombed School Building)
本川小学校平和資料館（旧本川国民学校 被爆校舎）
The closest school to the atomic bomb hypocenter in Hiroshima, located just 410 meters away. Completed in 1928 as the city's first reinforced concrete school building, it partially survived the August 6, 1945 blast while nearly all of its approximately 400 students and 10 teachers perished. The preserved basement and structural shell were opened as a peace museum in 1988.
Irifuneyama Memorial Museum (Former Kure Naval District Commander's Residence)
入船山記念館（旧呉鎮守府司令長官官舎）
The Irifuneyama Memorial Museum preserves the former official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Kure Naval District (呉鎮守府), one of the Imperial Japanese Navy's four major naval districts. The main building, a distinctive blend of Western half-timbered and Japanese architectural styles designed by Sakurai Kotaro and reconstructed in 1905 after the 1905 Geiyo Earthquake destroyed the original 1889 structure, was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1998. The Western-style wing features English half-timber exteriors, natural slate fish-scale roofing, imported British stained glass, and walls lined with rare kinkarakami (金唐紙) gold-embossed leather-style wallpaper — one of very few surviving examples in Japan. The museum complex in Irifuneyama Park also includes a relocated cottage where Admiral Togo Heihachiro resided during his tenure as Chief of Staff of the Kure Naval District (1890-1891), a clock tower from the former Kure Naval Arsenal, and a Meiji-era powder magazine. Thirty-two successive naval commanders occupied this residence from 1889 through 1945, after which it housed Allied occupation forces before being transferred to Kure City in 1966.
Iwakuni Naval Air Base
岩国海軍航空隊
An Imperial Japanese Navy air station established in 1938 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, commissioned on 8 July 1940. During WWII, Iwakuni served as a major naval aviation training and defense base, housing 96 trainers and 150 Zero fighters. A branch of the Etajima Naval Academy operated here from 1943. Bombed by American B-29s in May and August 1945, the base was occupied by U.S. Marines at war's end and continues today as MCAS Iwakuni.
JMSDF Kure Museum (Iron Whale Museum)
海上自衛隊呉史料館（てつのくじら館）
The JMSDF Kure Museum, nicknamed "Tetsu no Kujira Kan" (Iron Whale Museum), is a free-admission military museum operated by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. Opened on April 5, 2007, its centerpiece is the decommissioned Yūshio-class diesel-electric submarine Akishio (SS-579), a 76.2-meter, 2,250-ton vessel displayed above ground — the first real submarine to be put on outdoor display in Japan. The museum's three floors cover JMSDF history and its ties to the Kure Naval District, postwar minesweeping operations that cleared thousands of American mines from Japan's waterways, and submarine technology and crew life. Adjacent to the Yamato Museum but a separate facility, it stands on the historic waterfront of Kure, once home to the Imperial Japanese Navy's most important naval arsenal.
Kanmon Railway Tunnel
関門トンネル
Japan's first undersea tunnel (1942), a 3,614-meter railway passage beneath the Kanmon Strait connecting Shimonoseki (Honshu) and Moji (Kyushu). A critical wartime infrastructure achievement that maintained rail links between the two main islands. The Kanmon Strait was the primary target of the U.S. B-29 "Operation Starvation" aerial mining campaign in 1945, and the OSS planned a sabotage mission with 250 agents and 23 tons of explosives — cancelled only by Japan's surrender. A parallel pedestrian tunnel (780 m, opened 1958) allows visitors to walk beneath the strait.
Kanpu Ferry Terminal Ruins (Shimonoseki Port)
関釜連絡船跡（下関港）
Site of the Shimonoseki-Busan railway ferry terminal that operated from 1905 to 1945, serving as Imperial Japan's primary maritime link to colonial Korea. Over 30 million passengers traversed this route during 40 years of operation, including military personnel bound for the Asian continent, settlers destined for Manchuria, and tens of thousands of Korean forced laborers transported to Japanese factories and mines. A monument and preserved bollards at Kaikyo Yume Plaza mark the former railway pier where the ferries docked. Designated a quasi-railway memorial (準鉄道記念物).
Kure Naval Cemetery (Nagasako Park)
旧呉海軍墓地（長迫公園）
A former Imperial Japanese Navy cemetery, established in 1890 in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. Now preserved as Nagasako Park, it contains 157 individual graves and 80 cenotaphs honoring crew members of warships including battleship Yamato. The 2.9-hectare site also holds pre-war gravestones of foreign sailors and serves as the annual venue for a joint memorial service for the naval war dead.
Miho Naval Air Base
美保海軍航空基地
Miho Naval Air Base was an Imperial Japanese Navy airfield constructed from 1939 on the Yumigahama Peninsula in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, under the jurisdiction of the Maizuru Naval District. Commissioned in October 1943 as the Miho Naval Air Group (美保海軍航空隊), it served primarily as a preliminary flight training base for naval aviation cadets, processing up to 1,200 trainees from the Yokaren (予科練) Kō-class 13th intake. A second unit, the 2nd Miho Naval Air Group, was established in January 1944 for elementary flight training. The base was attacked once by USAAF B-24 Liberator bombers in July 1945. After Japan's surrender, it was occupied by the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), with RAAF No. 77 Squadron stationed there until 1950, followed by USAF units during the Korean War. Returned to Japanese control in 1957–58, it became JASDF Miho Air Base, currently the only transport aviation base in western Japan, operating C-2 and KC-46A aircraft.
Mutsu Memorial Museum
陸奥記念館
Museum on Suo-Oshima island in Yamaguchi Prefecture commemorating the battleship Mutsu (陸奥), a Nagato-class dreadnought that mysteriously exploded and sank at the Hashirajima fleet anchorage on June 8, 1943, killing 1,121 of the 1,474 men aboard. The museum displays salvaged artifacts from the wreck including hull sections, personal effects of the crew, ship fittings, and a Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat. A memorial service is held every June 8.
Okayama Air Raid Site
岡山空襲跡
Site of the devastating June 29, 1945 firebombing of Okayama City by 138 B-29 Superfortress bombers. Approximately 890 tons of incendiary munitions destroyed 73% of the urban center, killed 1,737 civilians, and razed Okayama Castle's National Treasure main keep to the ground.
Ourazaki P-Base (Midget Submarine Base)
大浦崎特殊潜航艇基地（P基地）
Secret wartime base on Kurahashi Island near Kure where the Imperial Japanese Navy manufactured Ko-hyoteki (Type A) midget submarines and trained approximately 2,600 crew members. The Kure Naval Arsenal branch factory here commenced operations in March 1943, producing the same class of two-man submarines deployed in the Pearl Harbor attack of December 1941. Today the site is Ourazaki Park, with concrete ruins, brick structures, air raid shelters, and gun emplacements still visible.
Ozuki Airfield (Shimonoseki Army Airfield)
小月飛行場（下関陸軍飛行場）
A military airfield in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, built by the Ministry of Communications (1937–1940) and transferred to the Imperial Japanese Army in April 1940. During WWII, the 4th Sentai operated Ki-45 Toryu twin-engine fighters from Ozuki for homeland air defense, engaging B-29 bombers from the June 1944 Yawata raid onward. The 12th Air Division HQ was based here from July 1944. Post-war, the base passed through U.S./NZ occupation, police reserve, JGSDF, and JASDF hands before becoming a JMSDF installation in 1964. Today it serves as the Maritime Self-Defense Force's primary flight school operating Fuji T-5 trainers.
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.
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.
Former Bank of Japan Hiroshima Branch
旧日本銀行広島支店
A surviving bank building close to Hiroshima's hypocenter, damaged in the atomic bombing and used to resume payments two days later. Public rooms preserve architectural details and visible traces of the bombing.
Former Taishoya Kimono Store and Fuel Hall (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park Rest House)
旧大正屋呉服店・燃料会館（広島市平和記念公園レストハウス）
The former Taishoya store became a wartime fuel-rationing office and survived the Hiroshima atomic bombing as a damaged shell. Its basement and exhibitions now convey the building's history and the life of the former Nakajima district.
Hirao Kaiten Base Remains
平生回天基地跡
Remains of the Imperial Japanese Navy's third kaiten (human torpedo) training and launch base, established on the Atata Peninsula of Hirao Town in March 1945. The base dispatched submarine I-58 with six kaiten on July 18, 1945; five pilots were killed in action in the Philippine Sea. A memorial monument (erected 1959) and the Atata Exchange Hall (opened 2004) now preserve the memory of the nine men who died.
Hiroshima Army Youth School Ruins
広島陸軍幼年学校跡
Ruins of the Imperial Japanese Army Youth School (Rikugun Yōnen Gakkō) in Hiroshima, established in 1897 to train boy cadets aged 13–16 as future army officers. Located in the Motomachi district north of Hiroshima Castle, the school was destroyed by the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945. Students had been evacuated to the mountains weeks earlier, but staff and hospitalized students perished. Gate pillars and a monument stone remain at the site today.
IJN Submarine School (Sonar Training Hall Monument)
海軍潜水学校（探知講堂跡）
Site of the Imperial Japanese Navy Submarine School, which trained all IJN submarine crews from 1920 until 1945. Originally established in Kure, the school relocated to Otake in 1942. The sole surviving remnant is the Sonar Training Hall (探知講堂) monument — a section of the concrete wall from a unique over-water facility where submariners trained to identify enemy vessels by propeller sound. The monument stands in the Toei District Waterfront Green Park in Otake.
Mitsui Tamano Shipyard (Former Tama Shipyard)
三井造船玉野造船所（旧玉造船所）
A shipbuilding centre founded in 1917 that produced naval vessels and wartime standard merchant ships. Parts of the waterfront remain in industrial use, including modern shipbuilding; unrestricted public entry is not established.
Okayama Air Raid Exhibition Room
岡山空襲展示室
A permanent exhibition on the 5th floor of Okayama City Museum (Ritt City Building, adjacent to JR Okayama Station west exit) documenting the devastating June 29, 1945 firebombing that destroyed 73% of Okayama's urban area. Displays include actual incendiary bomb specimens, USAAF mission documents, aerial reconnaissance photographs, and recorded survivor testimonies.
Taisha Naval Air Base Ruins
大社海軍航空基地跡
Former Imperial Japanese Navy air base in Hikawa-chō, Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture, constructed March–June 1945 and described as the largest military base in western Japan at the time. The base housed the 762nd Naval Air Group with Ginga (P1Y) bombers and stored 50 unassembled Ohka suicide weapons. Surviving structures include portions of a 1,700m concrete runway — one of Japan's largest war relics — plus aircraft revetments and tunnel storage facilities in the surrounding hillsides.
Fukuyama War Dead Memorial Statue (Mother and Two Children)
福山市戦災死没者慰霊の像（母子三人像）
A bronze group of three figures — a mother fleeing with her two children — erected in Fukuyama Central Park in March 1972 to commemorate victims of the August 8, 1945 air raid. Created by sculptor Imashiro Kunitada as part of Fukuyama's 55th city anniversary, the statue was based on an eyewitness account of a mother and two children found dead after the raid. Annual memorial ceremonies are held at this site every August 8. Registered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as an official civilian war-dead memorial.