All historic sites
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55 sites · page 1 of 3
Kakamigahara Airfield (Gifu Air Base)
各務原飛行場
Japan's second-oldest military airfield, established in 1917 in Gifu Prefecture. On April 1, 1939, test pilot Katsuzo Shima made the maiden flight of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero prototype here — the fighter that would become Imperial Japan's most iconic warplane. During WW2, the adjacent Kawasaki aircraft factory mass-produced Ki-61 Hien fighters at peak rates of 200 per month. The airfield survived devastating B-29 raids in 1945 and today serves as JASDF Gifu Air Base, with the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum preserving the site's aviation heritage.
Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters
松代大本営地下壕
A massive underground bunker complex built in 1944-1945 beneath three mountains in Matsushiro, Nagano, intended to relocate Japan's Imperial government in the event of an Allied invasion.
Mitsubishi Nagoya Aircraft Works (Oe Plant)
三菱重工業名古屋航空機製作所（大江工場）
The primary design and manufacturing facility of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, where engineer Jiro Horikoshi led development of Japan's most iconic WWII combat aircraft.
Mitsubishi Nagoya Engine Works (Daiko Plant)
三菱重工業名古屋発動機製作所（大幸工場）
Japan's largest aero-engine production complex during WW2, located in Higashi Ward, Nagoya. Established on July 1, 1938, when the engine division was separated from the Mitsubishi Nagoya Aircraft Works (Oe Plant). The Daiko Plant produced over 40% of all Japanese aircraft engines — a staggering total of 48,996 powerplants including the Mitsubishi Kinsei (Venus), Kasei (Mars), and Zuisei (Auspicious Star) radial engines that powered fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft across both the Navy and Army. From December 13, 1944, to April 7, 1945, the plant was targeted in seven devastating B-29 precision bombing raids involving over 600 sorties and 1,700+ tons of ordnance, killing more than 2,600 factory workers, mobilized students, and volunteer corps members. The factory was completely destroyed. The site is now occupied by Vantelin Dome Nagoya (formerly Nagoya Dome), built in 1997 on the former factory grounds.
Sado Gold Mine (Sado Kinzan)
佐渡金山
A historic gold and silver mine complex on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, that was one of Japan's largest gold producers. During WWII, an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 Korean laborers were mobilized to work in the mines under harsh conditions. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024, the site remains internationally controversial due to disputes over Japan's acknowledgment of wartime forced labor.
Toyokawa Naval Arsenal Ruins
豊川海軍工廠跡
Ruins of the Imperial Japanese Navy's largest inland ordnance factory, established in 1939 in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture. On August 7, 1945, 124 B-29 bombers devastated the arsenal and its surroundings, killing over 2,500 people — including 452 mobilized students — making it one of the deadliest single factory air raids in the Pacific War. The site is now preserved as Toyokawa Naval Arsenal Peace Park (opened 2018).
Aichi Aircraft Eitoku Plant
愛知航空機永徳工場
The principal airframe assembly plant of Aichi Aircraft Company (愛知航空機), located in Minato-ku, Nagoya on the Shonai River estuary. Operational from 1941, the Eitoku Plant mass-produced Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft including the D4Y Suisei (Judy) carrier dive bomber, E16A Zuiun (Paul) reconnaissance seaplane, and the top-secret M6A Seiran submarine-launched attack floatplane — built in a secluded corner building akin to Lockheed's Skunk Works. The plant grew to approximately 95 buildings covering 197 acres with a workforce peaking at over 26,000. The plant was bombed by B-29s on June 26, 1945 and suffered its heaviest damage in a second raid on July 24, 1945. Today, the concrete seaplane slipway (滑走台) — a 35m-wide ramp extending into the Fujimae tidal flats — survives as the most tangible war relic of this once-vital naval aircraft production complex.
Aichi Aircraft Funakata Plant (Atsuta Air Raid Site)
愛知航空機船方工場（熱田空襲跡）
The original airframe factory of Aichi Tokei Denki / Aichi Aircraft in Atsuta-ku, Nagoya. On June 9, 1945, B-29s obliterated the Funakata factory complex in approximately 10 minutes, killing 2,068 workers including mobilized students. A memorial Jizo statue and bombed canal embankment survive at the former factory gate as solemn reminders of one of the deadliest single industrial air raids of the Pacific War.
Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall
杉原千畝記念館
Memorial museum in Yaotsu, Gifu Prefecture — the hometown of Chiune Sugihara (1900–1986), a Japanese diplomat known as "Japan's Schindler." As vice-consul in Kaunas, Lithuania in the summer of 1940, Sugihara defied Foreign Ministry orders and hand-wrote over 2,100 transit visas for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, ultimately saving an estimated 6,000 lives. Opened in 2000 on Jindō-no-Oka (Hill of Humanity), the museum preserves his legacy through a replica of the Lithuanian consulate office, original visa documents, and testimonials from survivors and their descendants.
Former 3rd Division Headquarters, Nagoya
名古屋第三師団司令部跡
The former headquarters site of the Imperial Japanese Army 3rd Division, one of the oldest divisions in the Japanese military, garrisoned within the Sannomaru (outer bailey) of Nagoya Castle from 1873. Originally established as the Nagoya Garrison (名古屋鎮台) in 1873 and reorganized as the 3rd Division in 1888, this was the command centre for a division that fought in every major Japanese conflict from the First Sino-Japanese War through the Pacific War — including the Battle of Shanghai (1937) and the advance on Nanjing under General Iwane Matsui. The division headquarters occupied the castle grounds until it deployed for overseas operations. After the 1945 air raids destroyed much of Nagoya Castle, the military facilities were dismantled. Today a deteriorating brick wall (煉瓦塀) approximately 50 metres long on Demachi-dōri street near the Ninomaru intersection is the primary surviving remnant of the 3rd Division headquarters compound. The site is now occupied by the Water Resources Organization Chubu Branch (水資源機構中部支社).
Fukui Air Raid Site
福井空襲跡
The site of one of the most devastating strategic bombing raids on Japan. On July 19, 1945, 127 B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped over 865 tons of incendiary bombs on Fukui City in 81 minutes, destroying 84.8% of the city — the third-highest destruction rate among Japanese cities. The raid killed 1,576 people outright (1,684 including those who later died of injuries) and left about 85,600 homeless.
Hamamatsu Air Raids & Naval Bombardment Site
浜松艦砲射撃・空襲跡
Hamamatsu was attacked unusually often for a city of its size during World War II, enduring 27 air raids and naval bombardments between 1944 and 1945 that killed more than 3,000 people and destroyed 60.3% of the city. On July 29, 1945, a fleet led by USS South Dakota and HMS King George V conducted one of the last naval bombardments of the war, marking the final time a British battleship fired its guns in combat.
Hamamatsu Army Flying School
浜松陸軍飛行学校
The Imperial Japanese Army's primary bombing and heavy aviation training center, established in 1933 around a bombing training section created in 1925. Hamamatsu was among the first Japanese cities attacked by B-29 Superfortresses and suffered devastating firebombing raids in 1945. Today the site is JASDF Hamamatsu Air Base, home to the Air Park (浜松広報館) aviation museum.
Kanazawa Castle & Former IJA 9th Division Headquarters Site
金沢城・陸軍第九師団司令部跡
Kanazawa Castle served as the home base of the Imperial Japanese Army 9th Division from 1898 to 1940, when the division relocated permanently to Manchuria. The 9th Division, recruited from the Hokuriku region (Ishikawa, Toyama, and Fukui prefectures), was renowned as one of the IJA's most elite formations. Under Lieutenant General Oshima Hisanao and General Nogi Maresuke's Third Army, the division stormed the fortified heights of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), assaulting forts such as Panlongshan (盤龍山) and Erlongshan (二龍山) — suffering catastrophic casualties with all regimental commanders wounded. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, the division fought at Shanghai (1937), the Nanking Campaign, and the Wuhan Campaign. Transferred from Manchuria to Okinawa in July 1944 as the core of the 32nd Army's defense, the 9th Division was controversially extracted to Taiwan in November 1944 for the Philippines reinforcement chain — a decision later called "the blunder of a lifetime" by Imperial General Headquarters staff, as it fatally weakened Okinawa's defenses. The division ended the war in Taiwan without further combat. The original 1898 Western-style headquarters building on the castle's Ninomaru was relocated in 1968 to nearby Ishibiki and now serves as part of the National Crafts Museum (国立工芸館), designated a registered tangible cultural property.
Kawasaki Aircraft Gifu Plant
川崎航空機工業 岐阜工場
Kawasaki Aircraft Industries' Gifu Works, adjacent to Kakamigahara Airfield in Gifu Prefecture, was one of Imperial Japan's most important aircraft manufacturing facilities. Established in 1922 as the Kakamigahara Branch Works of Kawasaki Dockyard, the plant was renamed Gifu Works in 1939. During World War II, the factory mass-produced the Ki-61 Hien (Flying Swallow) — the Imperial Japanese Army's only mass-produced liquid-cooled inline-engine fighter — with approximately 3,000 Ki-61s and 275 Ki-100 conversions built here. Peak production reached 200 aircraft per month. On June 22, 1945, 44 B-29 Superfortresses devastated the factory complex with 2,000-lb and 4,000-lb bombs, killing 169 people including 63 Kawasaki workers and mobilized students. Today the site continues as Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Aerospace Systems Gifu Works, manufacturing military and civilian aircraft.
Kofu Air Raid Site (Tanabata Air Raid)
甲府空襲跡（七夕空襲）
Site of the devastating firebombing of Kofu on the night of July 6-7, 1945 — the "Tanabata Air Raid." A force of 131 B-29 Superfortress bombers from the Mariana Islands dropped M-47 napalm bombs and E-46 incendiary cluster bombs over the city, destroying 74% of the urban area, killing over 1,100 civilians, and leaving more than 18,000 buildings in ruins. The attack exploited the geography of the Kofu Basin, where surrounding mountains trapped heat and intensified the firestorm.
Manmo Pioneer Peace Memorial Museum
満蒙開拓平和記念館
The only museum in Japan dedicated to the history of the Manchurian-Mongolian colonization program. Located in Achi Village, Nagano Prefecture — the prefecture that sent the most emigrants to Manchuria — the museum commemorates the approximately 270,000 Japanese agricultural settlers dispatched to Manchukuo under government schemes from the 1930s onward. Of these, an estimated 80,000 perished from starvation, disease, Soviet attack, and mass suicide following the Soviet invasion of August 1945, when the Kwantung Army abandoned the defenseless settlers.
Mugonkan Memorial Museum for Fallen Art Students
戦没画学生慰霊美術館 無言館
A memorial art museum in Ueda preserving paintings and personal belongings of art students killed in the Sino-Japanese and Pacific wars. The main museum and neighbouring second gallery form one visitor site.
Nagaoka Air Raid Site & Yamamoto Isoroku Memorial Park
長岡空襲跡・山本五十六記念公園
Site of the devastating August 1, 1945 air raid on Nagaoka — the hometown of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku — where 125 B-29 bombers dropped 163,000 incendiary bombs, killing 1,488 people and destroying up to 80% of the city. The Yamamoto Isoroku Memorial Park, built on the site of his former family home which was destroyed in the raid, preserves a reconstructed birthplace and bronze bust of the admiral.
Nagoya Castle
名古屋城
Nagoya Castle, built in 1612 by Tokugawa Ieyasu as one of Japan's finest castles, was designated a National Treasure before the war. Its main keep, small keep, Honmaru Palace, golden shachihoko (dolphin-tiger roof ornaments), and northeast turret were all destroyed in the U.S. incendiary bombing raid of May 14, 1945. The castle was reconstructed in reinforced concrete in 1959 and a full-scale wooden reconstruction of the Honmaru Palace was completed in 2018. The main keep is now slated for wooden reconstruction to restore its original form.
Nakajima Aircraft Handa Plant
中島飛行機半田製作所
Major Nakajima Aircraft Company production facility in Handa, Aichi Prefecture, operational from 1943 to 1945. The plant mass-produced the B6N Tenzan carrier torpedo bomber (977 aircraft) and C6N Saiun carrier reconnaissance aircraft (427 aircraft) for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Severely damaged by the December 1944 Tonankai Earthquake (153 killed) and by USAAF air raids in July 1945. Underground dispersal tunnels were dug in nearby Agui to shelter production from bombing. Remnants of the runway and underground tunnels survive today.
Naoetsu POW Camp (Peace Memorial Park)
直江津捕虜収容所（平和記念公園）
The Naoetsu POW Camp (Tokyo Branch Camp No. 4) was one of the most notorious Allied prisoner-of-war camps in wartime Japan, established in December 1942 in Naoetsu (present-day Jōetsu City), Niigata Prefecture. Of 300 Australian soldiers initially interned, 60 died in captivity from pneumonia, malnutrition, and beriberi brought on by harsh labor, extreme cold, and neglect. The camp later held American, British, and Dutch POWs, reaching 698 inmates by war's end. Eight guards were executed for war crimes — the highest number of death sentences in the Yokohama war crimes trials. The site is now the Naoetsu Peace Memorial Park, opened in 1995 as a symbol of reconciliation between Japan and Australia.
Numazu Air Raid Site
沼津大空襲跡
Site of the devastating July 17, 1945 firebombing of Numazu City by 130 B-29 bombers of the USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing. The raid dropped 1,039 tons of incendiary bombs, destroying 9,523 buildings and killing 274 people. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey recorded an 89.5% destruction rate — one of the highest of any Japanese city in WWII.
Numazu Naval Arsenal
沼津海軍工廠
A major Imperial Japanese Navy arsenal established in June 1943 in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, specializing in radar equipment, electronic detection instruments, and aviation wireless systems. Employing approximately 20,000 workers including mobilized students, the arsenal was a key target during the devastating July 17, 1945 air raid that destroyed 89.5% of Numazu. The site was returned to civilian use after the war and is now an urbanized area with factories, schools, and residential neighborhoods.