All historic sites
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169 sites · page 7 of 8
Okegawa Branch of the Kumagaya Army Flying School
旧熊谷陸軍飛行学校桶川分教場（桶川飛行学校平和祈念館）
The Army flying school's separate Okegawa campus preserves restored barracks and service buildings. It trained pilots before becoming a special-attack training facility in 1945 and later housing returnees.
Oya Peace Kannon & Oya History Museum (Nakajima Aircraft Underground Factory Ruins)
大谷平和観音・大谷資料館（中島飛行機地下工場跡）
A 26.93-meter stone Kannon statue carved from 1948 to 1954 to commemorate WWII dead, adjacent to the Oya History Museum built inside the massive underground quarry where Nakajima Aircraft secretly produced parts for Ki-84 "Hayate" fighters during the war. The underground space covers over 20,000 square meters.
Peace Museum of Saitama
埼玉県平和資料館（埼玉ピースミュージアム）
A prefectural museum in Higashimatsuyama documenting wartime life, mobilization and military connections in Saitama. Closed for major repairs from 31 August 2026; reopening had not been announced when checked on 3 October 2026.
Sakura Army Regiment Site (National Museum of Japanese History)
佐倉陸軍連隊跡（国立歴史民俗博物館）
The former garrison site of the Imperial Japanese Army Infantry 2nd and 57th Regiments in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture. The 2nd Regiment, formed in 1874, was garrisoned here (its headquarters from 1884) until it moved to Mito in 1908, and was replaced by the 57th Regiment in 1909. The 57th Regiment served in WWII as part of the 1st Division and was nearly annihilated in the Battle of Leyte in 1944–1945. The site now houses the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku), which opened in 1983, while military-era gates and structures remain on the grounds.
Shōkeikan (National Museum for Disabled War Veterans)
しょうけい館（戦傷病者史料館）
Shōkeikan is a national museum in Chiyoda, Tokyo, dedicated to preserving and conveying the experiences of Japanese soldiers who were wounded or fell ill during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Established by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and opened in March 2006, the museum collects oral testimonies, prosthetics, medical records, personal belongings, and documentary materials illustrating the physical and psychological hardships endured by war-injured veterans and their families during and after the conflict. Originally located in Kudanminami near Yasukuni Shrine and the Showakan (National Showa Memorial Museum), the facility relocated to Green Oak Kudan in Kudankita in October 2023.
Showa Denko Kawasaki Factory Ruins
昭和電工川崎工場跡
Site of the Showa Denko chemical and aluminium factory in the Keihin Industrial Zone of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Opened in 1931 as the Kawasaki plant of Showa Fertilizer (founded 1928), it became a major wartime producer of aluminium, chemical products, and military materiel after the 1939 merger that created Showa Denko K.K. The company later caused the Niigata Minamata disease (1965), Japan's second mercury poisoning disaster. The 1931 Art Deco main office building survives as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.
South Manchuria Railway Tokyo Office Site
南満州鉄道株式会社東京支社跡
The South Manchuria Railway Company (南満州鉄道株式会社, commonly known as Mantetsu/満鉄) maintained its Tokyo branch office as the critical liaison between the colonial enterprise in Manchuria and the Japanese government in the capital. Originally established at Azabu-Mamiana-chō in 1907 when the headquarters relocated to Dalian, the Tokyo office later moved to Akasaka-ku Aoi-chō 2-banchi (present-day Toranomon 2-chōme), where a purpose-built reinforced concrete building was completed in 1936 during President Yōsuke Matsuoka's tenure. The "Mantetsu Building" (満鉄ビル) served as the nerve center for the company's Japan-side operations — lobbying the Diet, coordinating with the military and zaibatsu, managing investment flows, and operating the Manchuria Resource Exhibition Hall (満洲資源陳列所) which showcased Manchurian natural resources and industrial potential to investors and policymakers. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the building was requisitioned by SCAP/GHQ and repurposed as a U.S. Embassy annex and residence for occupation forces families. The original structure was demolished and replaced by the current Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Building (商船三井ビルディング, formerly Toranomon Dai Building) completed in 1979.
Suzuki Kantarō Memorial Museum
鈴木貫太郎記念館
Memorial museum in Sekiyado, Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, dedicated to Baron Kantarō Suzuki (1868–1948), the 42nd Prime Minister of Japan who led the nation to accept the Potsdam Declaration and end World War II. Opened in 1963, the museum preserves over 1,000 personal belongings, ceremonial attire, and documents, as well as an oil painting depicting the fateful Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) of August 9–10, 1945. The museum has been closed since October 2019 due to damage from Typhoon Hagibis and structural concerns.
Takahashi Korekiyo Memorial Park
高橋是清翁記念公園
A public park in Akasaka, Minato Ward, on the site of the former residence of Finance Minister Korekiyo Takahashi (1854-1936), who was assassinated here by rebel soldiers during the February 26 Incident. Takahashi, a former Prime Minister who had served seven times as finance minister, was killed in his bedroom at the age of 81. The site was donated to Tokyo City in 1938 and opened as a memorial park in 1941; it features traditional Japanese landscaping and a bronze statue of Takahashi.
Togo Shrine
東郷神社
Togo Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Harajuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, dedicated to Admiral Togo Heihachiro (1848–1934), commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet who achieved a decisive victory over the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Established on May 27, 1940 — Navy Day commemorating the Tsushima victory — the shrine was built during the height of wartime militarism and served as a site for spiritual mobilization, venerating Togo as a symbol of Japanese naval supremacy. The original wooden shrine buildings were destroyed by Allied firebombing during the Tokyo air raids of spring 1945. The shrine was rebuilt in reinforced concrete in 1964 and remains an active Shinto shrine today.
Tokyo Imperial University — Second Faculty of Engineering
東京帝国大学第二工学部
The Second Faculty of Engineering of Tokyo Imperial University was established in Chiba City in 1942 for wartime military research and engineer training. Its ten departments — including ordnance, aeronautics, shipbuilding, and applied chemistry — trained engineers for wartime industry. The campus later became part of Chiba University.
Tokyo National Museum
東京国立博物館
Japan's oldest and largest museum, founded in 1872 and located in Ueno Park, Tokyo. During WWII, the museum evacuated its art treasures and national treasures to protect them from air raids, beginning in 1941 with 334 precious items sent to the Nara Museum. The museum was ordered closed on March 10, 1945, as bombing intensified, and its gardens were used to grow crops for food production. The museum survived the war undamaged and reopened on March 24, 1946. In 1947, when the new Constitution took effect, the Imperial Museums became National Museums under the Education Ministry.
Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Toshiba) Horikawa-cho Plant
東京芝浦電気堀川町工場
A major Toshiba industrial facility in Kawasaki that produced military electronics, vacuum tubes, wireless communication equipment, and radar components during WWII. Established in 1908 as the Tokyo Electric Kawasaki Factory in the Keihin Industrial Zone, it was severely damaged in the April 15, 1945 Kawasaki air raids. The site was redeveloped as Lazona Kawasaki after the factory closed in 2000.
Uraga Dock (Former Uraga Dock Company Shipyard)
浦賀ドック（浦賀船渠跡）
The surviving brick dry dock of a shipyard that built Imperial Japanese Navy destroyers through 1945. The works closed in 2003; entry now depends on organized tours or designated events.
Utsunomiya City Memorial Tower
宇都宮市慰霊塔
A memorial tower erected in September 1970 at Kitayama Reien cemetery in Utsunomiya, commemorating all war dead including victims of the devastating July 12, 1945 air raid in which 133 B-29 bombers dropped 802.9 tons of incendiary bombs, killing over 620 civilians and destroying approximately 65% of the city center.
Verny Memorial Museum & Verny Park
ヴェルニー記念館・ヴェルニー公園
A 2.6-hectare waterfront park and museum in Yokosuka directly opposite the former Yokosuka Naval Arsenal (now U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka), honoring François Léonce Verny, the French naval engineer who directed construction of the arsenal from 1865 to 1876. The museum displays Japan's oldest surviving steam hammers (designated Important Cultural Properties), made in the Netherlands in 1865 for the Yokosuka Iron Works. The park features bronze busts of Verny and Oguri Tadamasa, French-style rose gardens with 1,400 plants of 130 varieties, a seaside boardwalk with panoramic views of the naval base and JMSDF facilities, and memorial monuments to the warships Nagato, Yamashiro and Okinoshima.
Yokohama Customs House (Queen's Tower)
横浜税関本関庁舎（クイーンの塔）
The Yokohama Customs headquarters, completed in 1934, is an iconic waterfront building nicknamed "Queen's Tower" for its distinctive Islamic-style green-domed tower rising 51 meters. One of the famed "Yokohama Three Towers," it was requisitioned by the US Eighth Army on August 30, 1945, and served as an Allied occupation facility until 1953, making it a key symbol of both prewar modernity and postwar occupation in Yokohama.
Yokohama North Dock (Mizuho Wharf)
横浜ノース・ドック（瑞穂埠頭）
Yokohama's Mizuho Wharf, constructed from 1925 to 1945 as a major foreign-trade pier, became a major wartime port for shipping munitions and materiel across the Pacific. Seized by US occupation forces on September 2, 1945, it served as the principal Army port for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and remains an active US military installation (FAC 3067) in the heart of Yokohama today.
Yokohama Peace Memorial
横浜市平和祈念碑
A bronze peace monument erected on May 29, 1992 in Odori Park, Yokohama, by the Yokohama War Victims Bereaved Families Association to commemorate the approximately 8,000–10,000 civilians killed in the Great Yokohama Air Raid of May 29, 1945. The monument houses granite plaques inscribed with the names of roughly 1,000 identified victims.
Yoshimi Hyakuana (Underground Munitions Factory Ruins)
吉見百穴（地下軍需工場跡）
A nationally designated historic site in Yoshimi Town, Saitama Prefecture, comprising 219 lateral cave tombs (yokoana) carved into a tuff hillside during the Kofun period (6th–7th century). In 1944–1945, the Imperial Japanese military commandeered the site to construct a massive underground factory for the Nakajima Aircraft Company, intended to produce aircraft engines safe from American air raids. An estimated 3,000 to 3,500 Korean laborers, working in round-the-clock shifts, excavated what is reported as approximately 8.4 kilometers of interconnected tunnels in a grid pattern beneath and around the ancient tombs, destroying over 10 designated cave tombs in the process. The factory never reached full production before Japan's surrender in August 1945. Today, visitors can view both the ancient burial caves and the sealed entrances to the wartime tunnel network—a striking juxtaposition of 1,400-year-old funerary archaeology and 20th-century wartime industrial desperation.
Asahi-cho Great Ginkgo Tree (Symbol of Recovery from the Utsunomiya Air Raid)
旭町の大いちょう（宇都宮空襲復興のシンボル）
A 400-year-old, 33-meter-tall ginkgo tree in central Utsunomiya that was scorched black in the July 12, 1945 air raid but miraculously sprouted new growth the following spring of 1946, becoming the city's enduring symbol of postwar recovery and resilience.
Former 2nd Antiaircraft Regiment Searchlight Training Building
旧陸軍高射砲第二連隊照空予習室
A surviving concrete air-defense training building in Kashiwa's Nedo district used projected aircraft images indoors and rangefinding equipment on its roof. Later converted into a fire station, it is now a registered cultural property; entry is prohibited.
Former Residence of Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki
小磯國昭旧邸跡
Site of the former Tokyo residence of General Kuniaki Koiso (1880–1950), the 41st Prime Minister of Japan who led the wartime cabinet from July 1944 to April 1945 during the final desperate phase of World War II. Koiso, previously Governor-General of Korea and known as "The Tiger of Korea," was convicted as a Class A war criminal at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died of esophageal cancer in Sugamo Prison in 1950.
Kogane Jizo at Fumonin Temple
黄金地蔵尊（普門院）
A Jizo statue originally placed near Koganecho Station where the bodies of air raid victims were gathered after the May 29, 1945 Yokohama firebombing. The statue was moved to Fumonin Temple in Minami Ward around 1952–53 and wears a protective air-raid hood (防空頭巾), symbolizing the civilian suffering during the raids.