All historic sites
Sites in the Japanese home islands are shown by default; switch the Region menu to see Taiwan, Korea and Manchuria.
10 sites
Former 11th Division Headquarters (Nogi Museum), Zentsuji
旧陸軍第十一師団司令部（乃木館）
The headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army 11th Division, completed in 1898 (Meiji 31) in Zentsuji, Kagawa Prefecture — the only divisional headquarters on the island of Shikoku. The Renaissance-style Western building with plastered walls and a hipped-and-gabled tile roof was the command post of General Nogi Maresuke, who served as the first divisional commander from 1898 to 1901. The 11th Division recruited soldiers from all four Shikoku prefectures and fought in the Russo-Japanese War (Battle of Port Arthur and Mukden under Nogi's Third Army), fought at Shanghai in 1937 and was stationed in Manchuria from 1938, and returned to Shikoku in April 1945 for homeland defense of Tosa Bay. The Zentsuji garrison also housed one of the first Allied POW camps in the Japanese Home Islands (January 1942), holding American servicemen captured on Guam and Wake Island. Today the building serves as the Nogi Museum (乃木館) within JGSDF Camp Zentsuji, home of the 14th Brigade. Remarkably, the original headquarters, red-brick armories, barracks, and the adjacent Kaikosha officers' club (Important Cultural Property, 1903) all survive in situ — an exceptionally rare ensemble of Meiji-era military architecture still in active use.
Former Matsuyama Naval Air Base
松山海軍航空基地跡
The site of the former Matsuyama Naval Air Base in Ehime Prefecture, home to the elite 343rd Naval Air Group (Tsurugi Unit) commanded by Captain Minoru Genda. Equipped with the Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai, the unit was Japan's last elite interceptor force. Three wartime aircraft revetments (entaigo) survive near Matsuyama Airport, one designated as a Matsuyama City tangible cultural property.
Matsuyama Air Raid Site
松山大空襲跡
Site of the devastating firebombing of Matsuyama City on July 26, 1945, when 128 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 73rd Bombardment Wing dropped 896 tons of incendiary munitions over approximately two hours, killing 251 people and destroying 55% of the city's housing. The raid displaced 62,200 residents — 53% of the city population — and reduced much of the castle-town center to ashes, though Matsuyama Castle on Mount Katsuyama survived the firestorm.
Shiden Kai Exhibition Hall
紫電改展示館
The only museum in Japan displaying an authentic Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai ("Violet Lightning") fighter, salvaged in 1979 from the seabed of Kura Bay where it had lain since being ditched during combat on July 24, 1945. The aircraft belonged to the elite 343rd Naval Air Group.
Takamatsu Air Raid Site
高松空襲跡
Site of the devastating firebombing of Takamatsu City on July 4, 1945, when 116 B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped over 800 tons of incendiary munitions, destroying approximately 80% of the urban area and killing 1,359 people — the worst air raid damage suffered by any city in Shikoku during World War II.
Tokushima Air Raid Site & Peace Memorial Pagoda
徳島大空襲跡・パゴダ平和記念塔
Site of the devastating firebombing of Tokushima City on July 4, 1945, when 129 B-29 bombers dropped over 1,050 tons of incendiary bombs, destroying 62% of the city and killing approximately 1,000 people. A cenotaph at the Tokushima Castle ruins commemorates the air-raid victims, and the Peace Memorial Pagoda (パゴダ平和記念塔) on the summit of Bizan commemorates the war dead of the Pacific War.
Maehama Aircraft Shelters (Former Kochi Naval Air Group)
前浜掩体群（旧高知海軍航空隊）
Seven surviving concrete aircraft shelters in fields south of Kochi Airport. Built for the wartime naval airfield, the group includes a conserved public park around Shelter No. 5; shelter interiors are closed.
Matsuyama Castle & Former IJA 22nd Infantry Regiment Site
松山城・陸軍歩兵第二十二連隊跡
Matsuyama Castle in Ehime Prefecture served as the garrison of the Imperial Japanese Army 22nd Infantry Regiment from the 1880s to 1945. The castle's Sannomaru (third bailey, present-day Shiroyama Park / Horinouchi) housed the regimental barracks, while the Ninomaru (second bailey) became an army hospital. The 22nd Regiment, famed as the "Iyo Nikudan Rentai" (Iyo Flesh-Bullet Regiment) for its ferocity in the Russo-Japanese War, belonged to the 11th Division and later the 24th Division before being annihilated in the Battle of Okinawa in June 1945. Matsuyama also hosted Japan's first prisoner-of-war camp during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), where approximately 6,000 Russian POWs were treated with notable humanity. Today the castle grounds are a public park and National Historic Site, with the reconstructed castle tower standing as one of Japan's twelve original castle keeps.
Tokushima Naval Air Group Ruins
徳島海軍航空隊跡
Former Imperial Japanese Navy air training base in Matsushige, Tokushima Prefecture, where the Shiragiku Special Attack Unit was formed in 1945. Trainee pilots flew obsolete Kyushu K11W Shiragiku trainer aircraft on one-way kamikaze missions against Allied ships off Okinawa. Of the 108 men who perished, 56 were killed in special attack sorties launched from Kushira Air Base between May and June 1945. The site is now shared by Tokushima Airport and JMSDF Tokushima Air Base, which houses a small memorial museum with a Kannon statue honoring the fallen.
Kochi City Peace Memorial Monument
高知市平和祈念の碑
A peace memorial monument erected on July 4, 2004 at the northwest entrance of the Kochi City General Sports Complex (Ryoma Stadium) in Ohara-cho, Kochi. The monument enshrines the Kochi Air Raid Victims Registry and commemorates the 401 civilians killed in the devastating B-29 firebombing of Kochi City on July 4, 1945, which destroyed 40% of the urban area. Annual peace memorial ceremonies have been held at this site every July 4 since 2005.