All historic sites
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55 sites · page 1 of 3
Bansei Tokko Peace Museum
万世特攻平和祈念館
War museum in Minamisatsuma commemorating the 201 airmen who died at Bansei Air Base, the last airfield built by the Imperial Japanese Army and a special attack (kamikaze) base. The museum displays the salvaged wreck of an Aichi E13A1 reconnaissance seaplane — the only surviving example in Japan — recovered from the nearby sea floor in 1992, along with farewell letters, photographs, and personal effects of the pilots, including the iconic 1945 photograph of 17-year-old Corporal Yukio Araki holding a puppy with his 72nd Shinbu Squadron comrades the day before their final mission.
Chiran Dispersed Kamikaze Staging Sites
知覧周辺特攻基地群遺跡
Scattered across the countryside around Chiran Airfield in southern Kagoshima, these dispersed wartime sites include aircraft revetments, the triangular barracks where kamikaze pilots spent their final hours, a radio communications bunker, ammunition magazines, and other infrastructure ruins separate from the main peace museum complex.
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
知覧特攻平和会館
The Chiran Peace Museum commemorates the 1,036 Imperial Japanese Army pilots who flew kamikaze missions during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, many departing from the adjacent Chiran Airfield.
Hashima Island (Gunkanjima / Battleship Island)
端島（軍艦島）
An abandoned island off Nagasaki known for its undersea coal mines operated by Mitsubishi. During WWII, mobilized Korean workers and forcibly transported Chinese laborers were forced to work in brutal conditions in the mines. The island reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959 and was abandoned in 1974. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 as part of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution sites, though its recognition remains controversial due to Japan's insufficient acknowledgment of forced labor history.
Himeyuri Monument & Himeyuri Peace Museum
ひめゆりの塔・ひめゆり平和祈念資料館
Memorial and museum commemorating the 136 Himeyuri Student Corps members — schoolgirls and teachers mobilized as frontline nurses during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa — who perished in the final weeks of the war.
Imperial Steel Works (Yawata Steel Works)
官営八幡製鐵所
Japan's first integrated government-run steelworks, established in 1901 in Kitakyushu. During WWII it produced 24% of Japan's rolled steel, making it the primary target of the first B-29 strategic bombing raid on the Japanese home islands on June 15, 1944 (Operation Matterhorn). Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
JMSDF Sasebo Museum "Sail Tower" (Former Sasebo Naval Arsenal Site)
海上自衛隊佐世保史料館（セイルタワー）
The JMSDF Sasebo Museum, nicknamed "Sail Tower" for its sail-shaped rooftop, is a seven-story naval history museum located in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. Its lower two floors incorporate the restored 1898 Sasebo Suikosha (Naval Officers' Club), making it both a functioning museum and a preserved Meiji-era naval heritage structure. The museum houses approximately 4,400 artifacts spanning from the establishment of Sasebo Naval District (1889) through the Imperial Japanese Navy era — including the Sasebo Naval Arsenal's peak wartime operations employing 50,000 workers — to the modern Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Opened on March 10, 1997, it stands on the grounds of the former Sasebo Chinjufu (Naval Station), which was one of four principal naval districts that defended the Japanese home islands.
Kanoya Air Base Museum
鹿屋航空基地史料館
The principal Imperial Japanese Navy base for kamikaze sorties during the final months of WWII. Almost half of all naval kamikaze attacks departed from Kanoya between March and August 1945. The site is now a JMSDF air station with a museum housing over 5,500 artifacts.
Kokura Arsenal Ruins
小倉陸軍造兵廠跡
Site of the Kokura Army Arsenal (1916–1945), the largest munitions factory in southern Japan and the primary target for the Fat Man atomic bomb on August 9, 1945. Cloud cover and smoke from the previous night's firebombing of nearby Yawata forced the B-29 Bockscar to divert to its secondary target, Nagasaki — an event known as "the Luck of Kokura." The arsenal grounds now host Katsuyama Park, the Kitakyushu Central Library, and a peace memorial with the Nagasaki Bell.
Miike Coal Mines (Manda Pit)
三池炭鉱（万田坑）
One of Japan's largest coal mines, operated by Mitsui from 1889 to 1997. The Manda Pit, with Japan's largest vertical shafts, was a core production site from 1902 to 1951. During WWII, thousands of conscripted Korean civilians, Chinese forced laborers, and Allied POWs were compelled to work in the mines under brutal conditions. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 as part of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution sites.
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard
三菱長崎造船所
A major warship construction facility in Nagasaki that built battleships Musashi and numerous other warships.
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park
長崎原爆落下中心地
The ground zero site of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, now a memorial park.
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
長崎原爆資料館
The principal museum documenting the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Opened in April 1996 to replace the aging Nagasaki International Culture Hall, the largely underground facility houses artifacts, photographs, and exhibits conveying the reality of nuclear destruction and advocating for lasting peace.
Nagasaki Peace Park (Peace Statue)
長崎平和公園（平和祈念像）
A memorial park in Nagasaki's Urakami district opened in 1950, centered on the iconic 9.7-meter bronze Peace Statue by sculptor Kitamura Seibō. The park commemorates the atomic bombing of August 9, 1945 and serves as a site for the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony, with international peace monuments donated by nations worldwide.
Sasebo Naval Base
佐世保海軍基地
A major IJN fleet base in Kyushu, key for operations in the East China Sea and the southern Pacific.
Tachiarai Army Airfield
大刀洗陸軍飛行場
An Imperial Japanese Army airfield once described as the largest in East Asia, established in 1919 in Fukuoka Prefecture. Tachiarai served as the principal army pilot training center with 18 branch schools, and became a key staging base for kamikaze operations in the final months of WWII. Devastating B-29 raids on March 27 and 31, 1945 killed several hundred to about 1,000 people (figures vary by source), including 31 schoolchildren sheltering in Tonta Forest.
Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum
筑前町立大刀洗平和記念館
A museum built on the former site of the Tachiarai Army Airfield, once the largest military airfield in Kyushu. It preserves approximately 1,800 wartime artifacts, including the world's only intact Nakajima Ki-27 fighter and a Mitsubishi A6M Zero, commemorating the airfield's history, the devastating March 1945 air raid, and the young pilots who trained there before kamikaze missions.
Uragashira Repatriation Memorial Peace Park
浦頭引揚記念平和公園
A memorial park and museum in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, commemorating the approximately 1.4 million Japanese military personnel and civilians who were repatriated through Uragashira Port between 1945 and 1950. Sasebo was one of Japan's major repatriation ports, primarily receiving returnees from mainland China and Southeast Asia.
Urakami Cathedral (Immaculate Conception Cathedral)
浦上天主堂
Once the largest Catholic cathedral in East Asia, Urakami Cathedral stood just 500 meters from the hypocenter of the Nagasaki atomic bomb on August 9, 1945. The blast utterly destroyed the Romanesque brick structure that had taken 30 years to build (1895–1925), killing approximately 8,500 of the parish's 12,000 faithful. Rebuilt in reinforced concrete by 1959 and clad in brick in 1980, the cathedral remains a working parish church, a symbol of both atomic devastation and the resilience of Nagasaki's Hidden Christian community.
Chisso Minamata Chemical Factory
日本窒素肥料水俣工場
The Minamata factory of Nihon Chisso Hiryo (Japan Nitrogen Fertilizer Company) was one of Japan's most important wartime chemical plants, producing acetaldehyde, acetic acid, butanol, ammonia, and explosives for the military effort from 1908 through 1945. Founded by Shitagau Noguchi to exploit local hydroelectric power for carbide and fertilizer production, the factory grew into the centerpiece of the Nichitsu zaibatsu (日窒コンツェルン), which by the 1930s operated a vast chemical empire spanning Japan and colonial Korea. The factory is globally infamous as the source of Minamata disease (水俣病), caused by methylmercury discharged from its acetaldehyde production process from 1932 to 1968 — one of the worst industrial pollution disasters in history.
Former 18th Division Headquarters (Chrysanthemum Division), Kurume
久留米第十八師団司令部跡（菊兵団）
The former headquarters site of the Imperial Japanese Army 18th Division — the renowned "Chrysanthemum Division" (菊兵団, Kiku Heidan) — located in the Suwanomachi district of Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Established on 13 November 1907 as part of the post-Russo-Japanese War military expansion, the 18th Division bore the chrysanthemum (菊) as its tsūshōgō code name, the same flower that serves as the Imperial crest. Recruiting primarily from Kyushu, the division took part in the "Malayan Blitzkrieg" (マレー電撃戦) from December 1941 under the 25th Army of Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomoyuki, and in the capture of Singapore in February 1942. Transferred to Burma under the 15th Army, the division fought Chinese and American forces in the Hukawng Valley of northern Burma (1943–1944) and at Meiktila in 1945, losing over 20,000 of its 31,444 men. The former divisional headquarters site — used by the 18th Division from 1907 to 1925 and afterwards by the 12th Division, transferred from Kokura — is now occupied by the Kurume Tax Office (久留米税務署). A memorial stele for the 18th Division stands in nearby Suwanomachi Park, while the adjacent JGSDF Camp Kurume (久留米駐屯地) preserves related military heritage in its public relations museum.
Former Sasebo Naval District Victory Memorial Hall (Sasebo Citizens' Cultural Hall)
旧海軍佐世保鎮守府凱旋記念館
Built in May 1923 with donations from 12 prefectures (Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa) under the Sasebo Naval District's jurisdiction, this reinforced concrete two-story hall commemorated the achievements of the Second Special Squadron (第二特務艦隊) during World War I. The squadron, centered on Sasebo-based warships, earned the title "Guardian of the Mediterranean" for its 358 sorties escorting Allied vessels and rescuing over 4,000 personnel from U-boat attacks. The building served as a venue for naval ceremonies throughout the interwar and WWII periods. After the war it was requisitioned by U.S. forces, returned in 1977, and transferred to Sasebo City in 1982 as a civic cultural hall. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 1997, it was designated a component of the Japan Heritage site "Naval Stations: Yokosuka, Kure, Sasebo, Maizuru" in 2016.
Former Shiroyama National School A-bomb Remains
旧城山国民学校校舎（城山小学校平和祈念館）
A surviving stairwell of Shiroyama National School preserves fire damage from the Nagasaki atomic bombing. Now a peace museum within an operating school, it is open during designated visiting hours.
Fukuoka POW Camp Headquarters
福岡俘虜収容所本所
The headquarters of the Fukuoka Prisoner of War Camp system, the largest POW camp network in western Japan during World War II. Established on January 1, 1943, within the Western District Army Headquarters compound in Fukuoka City, the administrative office oversaw more than 30 branch camps across Kyushu and, initially, Yamaguchi and Hiroshima prefectures, where thousands of Allied POWs — American, British, Australian, and Dutch — were forced to labor in coal mines, shipyards, and factories. The camp system was commanded by Colonel Ijyu Sugasawa and later Colonel Manjiro Fukumoto. Sugasawa was executed for war crimes after the war. The headquarters itself held no prisoners, serving purely as the administrative nerve center for the entire Fukuoka camp group.