All historic sites
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50 sites · page 1 of 3
Former Hiroshima Army Clothing Depot
旧広島陸軍被服支廠
The largest surviving A-bombed structure in Hiroshima, this former Imperial Japanese Army clothing depot was built in 1913 as a facility for manufacturing, storing, and distributing military uniforms and equipment. Located 2.67 km from the atomic bomb hypocenter, the four reinforced-concrete and brick warehouse buildings, laid out in an L-shape, survived the blast and were immediately used as emergency relief stations. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in January 2024 after years of preservation-versus-demolition controversy.
Former IJA 5th Division Headquarters Site (Hiroshima Castle)
広島第五師団司令部跡
The site of the Imperial Japanese Army 5th Division Headquarters, located within the grounds of Hiroshima Castle (鯉城, Rijō — "Carp Castle") in Naka-ku, Hiroshima. The 5th Division (第五師団), nicknamed the "Carp Division" (鯉師団, Koi Shidan) after the castle's alternate name, was established in 1888 from the earlier Hiroshima Garrison (広島鎮台, 1873). The division was one of the IJA's most celebrated combat formations: it fought in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the Second Sino-Japanese War before achieving fame as the spearhead of the Malaya Campaign and the Battle of Singapore (December 1941 – February 1942) under the 25th Army of Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomoyuki. The division's bicycle-mounted troops became famous for their rapid advance down the Malay Peninsula. During the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), the castle's Honmaru briefly housed the Imperial General Headquarters (大本営) with Emperor Meiji in residence. On 6 August 1945, the atomic bomb destroyed the entire castle complex, killing many of the troops of the Chūgoku Military District headquarters and other units stationed there. The castle's main tower was reconstructed in 1958; today the Honmaru preserves the stone foundations of the Imperial General Headquarters and memorial markers.
Former Kure Naval District Headquarters (JMSDF Kure Regional Command)
呉鎮守府跡（海上自衛隊呉地方総監部）
The Kure Naval District (呉鎮守府, Kure Chinjufu), established on July 1, 1889, was the second of the Imperial Japanese Navy's four major naval districts (alongside Yokosuka, Sasebo, and Maizuru). Its jurisdiction encompassed the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific coasts from Wakayama to Yamaguchi, eastern/northern Kyushu, and all of Shikoku — the strategic heart of Japan's maritime defense. The current headquarters building (第一庁舎), completed in 1907 (Meiji 40), is a two-story brick-and-granite Western-style structure with a central dome, replacing the original 1889 building that was damaged in the 1905 Geiyo Earthquake. During WWII, the district administered the Kure Naval Arsenal (Japan's largest shipyard, builder of battleship Yamato), submarine bases, torpedo factories, naval hospitals, and training centers. In the war's final months, devastating American air raids on July 1-2 and July 24-28, 1945, destroyed much of the base and city, burning the headquarters building to its brick shell. Reconstructed postwar, the building has served as the JMSDF Kure Regional Command (呉地方総監部) headquarters since the mid-1950s, making it one of Japan's longest continuously used naval administrative facilities. Designated as part of Japan Heritage Story #035 "Guardports" (鎮守府), the complex includes historic red-brick warehouses (built c.1900) and underground air-raid shelter tunnels.
Former Second General Army Headquarters
旧陸軍第二総軍司令部跡
The headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's Second General Army (第二総軍), established in Hiroshima in April 1945 under Field Marshal Hata Shunroku to coordinate the defense of western Japan against the anticipated Allied invasion (Operation Ketsu-Go). The command was responsible for all military operations across western Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima devastated the headquarters and its subordinate organizations; by some estimates as many as 20,000 military personnel in the city were killed.
Hashirajima Anchorage
柱島泊地
The primary anchorage of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet throughout the Pacific War, located in southern Hiroshima Bay near Hashira Island (柱島), Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. From this vast sheltered anchorage, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku issued the historic "Niitaka Yama Nobore" (Climb Mount Niitaka) order on 2 December 1941 from the bridge of flagship Nagato, signaling the Kido Butai to proceed with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The anchorage witnessed the catastrophic explosion and sinking of battleship Mutsu on 8 June 1943, killing 1,121 crew. Yamato served as Combined Fleet flagship here from February 1942. As Allied air raids intensified in 1945, the fleet dispersed to coves near Kure.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Atomic Bomb Dome)
広島平和記念碑（原爆ドーム）
The iconic ruin of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, preserved as a memorial to the atomic bombing of August 6, 1945.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
広島平和記念資料館
The world's foremost museum dedicated to documenting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Designed by architect Kenzo Tange and opened in 1955, the museum houses artifacts, photographs, and survivor testimonies that convey the catastrophic human cost of nuclear weapons. More than 70 million people have visited since its founding, a mark passed in 2017.
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, Etajima
海軍兵学校
The Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima, established in 1888, was the primary officer training institution of the Imperial Japanese Navy, comparable to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.
Kaiten Memorial Museum
回天記念館
Museum on Ozushima island dedicated to the kaiten human torpedo program — the Imperial Japanese Navy's underwater special attack weapon. Located at the site of the first and best-preserved kaiten training base (est. September 1944), the museum houses over 1,000 artifacts including farewell letters, uniforms, and personal belongings of the young pilots who perished. Access requires a ferry from Tokuyama Port.
Kure Naval Arsenal
呉海軍工廠
One of the four major Imperial Japanese Navy arsenals and the birthplace of the battleship Yamato.
Kure Naval Base Air Raid Site
呉軍港空襲跡
Site of the devastating Allied air raids on Kure Naval Base from July 24-28, 1945, which destroyed most of the remaining Imperial Japanese Navy fleet at anchor. U.S. Third Fleet carrier aircraft sank the battleships Haruna, Hyūga, and Ise, the aircraft carrier Amagi, and the cruisers Tone, Aoba, Ōyodo, Iwate, and Izumo, while the British Pacific Fleet struck other targets around the Inland Sea — effectively eliminating Japan's surface fleet as a fighting force in one of the final major naval engagements of WWII.
Memorial Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims
原爆死没者慰霊碑
The Memorial Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims (formally the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace) is an arch-shaped monument designed by Kenzo Tange and unveiled on August 6, 1952, in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It shelters a stone chest containing the registry of all known atomic bomb victims’ names—344,306 as of August 2024—and bears the inscription: "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil."
Okunoshima Poison Gas Museum
大久野島毒ガス資料館
A museum on Okunoshima Island documenting Japan's secret chemical weapons program that produced over 6,000 tons of poison gas between 1929 and 1945. The island was erased from wartime maps to conceal its mustard gas and lewisite production facilities, at what was the Imperial Japanese Army's only poison gas factory, whose output grew with the demands of the war in China.
Otsushima Kaiten Base
大津島回天基地
The Imperial Japanese Navy's first and best-preserved training and launch base for kaiten (回天) human torpedoes, established on Otsushima Island in September 1944. The island's torpedo testing facilities, in use since the late 1930s, were converted to support the manned suicide torpedo program. Remains include a 250-meter transport tunnel, launch platforms with concrete caissons, and maintenance facilities — the only kaiten base nationwide where original wartime structures survive substantially intact.
Ujina Port (Imperial Army Transport Port)
広島宇品港（陸軍輸送港）
The Imperial Japanese Army's most critical embarkation port since the First Sino-Japanese War (1894). Constructed in 1889 under Hiroshima Prefecture Governor Senda Sadaaki, Ujina Port served as the primary departure point for continental troop deployments across every major conflict from the Sino-Japanese War through World War II. The Army Ship Command (船舶司令部), known by the code name "Akatsuki" (暁部隊), was headquartered here, commanding over 300,000 personnel and 1,000+ transport vessels. After the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, the Ship Command — located approximately 4.6 km from the hypocenter — organized the first large-scale rescue operations in the devastated city.
Yamato Museum (Kure Maritime Museum)
大和ミュージアム（呉市海事歴史科学館）
The Yamato Museum in Kure features a 26.3-meter 1/10 scale model of the battleship Yamato, Zero fighter aircraft, Kaiten human torpedoes, and artifacts from Japan's largest wartime naval shipbuilding center.
Chosei Coal Mine Disaster Site
長生炭鉱水没事故跡
Site of the devastating Chosei Coal Mine flooding disaster on February 3, 1942, in which 183 miners perished — 136 of them from the Korean Peninsula — when the ceiling of an undersea tunnel collapsed approximately 1.1 km offshore. Most of the victims' remains still lie in the flooded tunnels beneath the seabed; the first were recovered by divers in 2025. Two concrete ventilation towers ("piya") protruding from the sea mark the location of the submerged mine.
Former Hiro Naval Air Arsenal (11th Naval Air Arsenal)
旧海軍航空廠 広工廠跡（第11海軍航空廠）
The Hiro Naval Arsenal, established in 1921 as a branch of the Kure Naval Arsenal in Hiro Village (now Kure City), Hiroshima Prefecture, was Imperial Japan's premier facility for designing and manufacturing flying boats, seaplanes, and aero engines. Elevated to independent status as Hiro Naval Arsenal (広海軍工廠) in 1923, its aircraft division separated in 1941 to form the 11th Naval Air Arsenal (第11海軍航空廠). The facility produced pioneering aircraft including the Hiro H1H Type 15 flying boat, H4H patrol flying boat, and G2H long-range bomber, while later mass-producing the Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (Judy) carrier dive bomber. On May 5, 1945, 148 B-29 Superfortresses dropped 578 tons of bombs from 20,000 feet, devastating the complex and halving production capacity. The site is now occupied by the Oji Materia Kure Paper Mill, with scattered wartime remnants including tunnel shelters and gate pillar ruins along the coast.
Former Senzaki Repatriation Port Site
旧仙崎引揚港跡（海外引揚げ上陸跡地）
The site of a major postwar repatriation port in Senzaki, Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where approximately 414,000 Japanese repatriates landed and 340,000 Korean residents departed between September 1945 and October 1946. Selected as an alternative to Shimonoseki — whose harbor was blocked by mines and sunken vessels — Senzaki became the fifth-largest repatriation port in Japan.
Fukuromachi Elementary School Peace Museum
袋町小学校平和資料館
A hibaku (A-bombed) building located just 460 meters from the hypocenter, where the reinforced concrete West Building of Fukuromachi National School survived the atomic bombing of August 6, 1945. The charred interior walls preserve chalk messages written by survivors desperately seeking missing family members, rediscovered decades later behind plaster during renovation. Opened as a peace museum in April 2002.
Fukuyama Castle (Fukuyama Air Raid Heritage Site)
福山城（福山大空襲戦災遺跡）
Fukuyama Castle, originally built in 1622, lost its National Treasure-designated tenshu (main keep) and most structures in the devastating August 8, 1945 firebombing that destroyed approximately 80% of the city. The raid by 91 B-29 bombers came just two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The tenshu was reconstructed in ferro-concrete in 1966. Surviving wartime structures include the Fushimi Yagura and Sujigane Gate (both Important Cultural Properties), while the castle stone walls still bear red heat discoloration from the firestorm.
Hikari Naval Arsenal
光海軍工廠
Hikari Naval Arsenal was the Imperial Japanese Navy's seventh naval arsenal, established in Hikari City, Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1940. The sprawling 4-square-kilometer coastal facility produced steel, torpedoes, engines, cannon, and bombs, and from 1944 housed a training and sortie base for kaiten human torpedoes. At its peak the arsenal employed approximately 30,000 workers including 6,500 mobilized students. On August 14, 1945 — the day before Japan's surrender — 167 B-29 bombers devastated the complex in five waves, killing 738 people.
Hiroshima Communications Hospital (A-bombed Building)
広島逓信病院旧外来棟被爆資料室
The Hiroshima Communications Hospital, located approximately 1.37 km from the atomic bomb hypocenter, was one of the few medical facilities that survived the bombing on August 6, 1945. Despite severe blast damage, the reinforced concrete building did not collapse, and it immediately became a critical emergency treatment center where over 250 severely injured victims were admitted on the first day alone. Hospital director Dr. Hachiya Michihiko, himself badly wounded by flying glass, returned to duty within days and later published "Hiroshima Diary," a 56-day account published in translation in 18 countries.
Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine
広島護國神社
A Gokoku Shrine in Hiroshima dedicated to approximately 92,000 war dead from Hiroshima Prefecture, including about 10,000 mobilized students and Women's Volunteer Corps members killed by the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. Originally founded in 1868 to enshrine Boshin War dead, it was destroyed by the atomic bombing and rebuilt within Hiroshima Castle grounds in 1956. It represents the nationwide Gokoku Shrine system used for wartime spiritual mobilization and remains a key site for peace remembrance ceremonies.