All historic sites
Sites in the Japanese home islands are shown by default; switch the Region menu to see Taiwan, Korea and Manchuria.
20 sites
Hanaoka Incident Site & Peace Memorial Museum
花岡事件跡・花岡平和記念館
Site of the 1945 Hanaoka Incident, where 986 Chinese forced laborers under Kajima Corporation suffered brutal conditions at Hanaoka Mine, resulting in 418 deaths. A peace memorial museum now commemorates the tragedy.
Ōminato Guard District
大湊警備府
The Imperial Japanese Navy's northernmost guard district, responsible for defending the Tsugaru Strait and patrolling waters around Hokkaidō, Karafuto, and the Kurile Islands. Home port of the IJN 5th Fleet, from which the Aleutian Islands campaign was launched in June 1942. Now the JMSDF Ōminato Base, the keystone of Japan's northern maritime defense.
Bombing of Aomori
青森大空襲
On the night of July 28–29, 1945, 62 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing firebombed Aomori, a prefectural capital and critical transportation hub linking Honshu to Hokkaido via the Seikan Ferry. The resulting firestorm destroyed 88% of the city, burned 18,045 homes, and left an estimated 1,767 civilians dead or wounded; the city's memorial records 1,018 deaths. Aomori ranked among the most thoroughly devastated cities in the entire strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Former IJA 2nd Division Headquarters Site (Sendai Castle)
仙台第二師団司令部跡
The site of the Imperial Japanese Army 2nd Division Headquarters, located within the ni-no-maru (second bailey) of Sendai Castle (Aoba Castle) in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. The 2nd Division — known as the "Sendai Division" (仙台師団) or by its code name "Isamu" (勇) — was established in 1888 from the former Sendai Garrison and became one of the IJA's most battle-tested formations. It fought in the Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and the Siberian Intervention before suffering catastrophic losses at Guadalcanal in 1942–43, where it lost over 7,000 men in a campaign that included the disastrous Battle for Henderson Field under Lieutenant General Maruyama Masao. The division later fought in Burma and ended the war in French Indochina. The headquarters and surrounding military facilities in the castle grounds were destroyed in the Sendai air raids of 10 July 1945. After postwar occupation by U.S. forces as "Camp Sendai," the ni-no-maru site became Tohoku University's Kawauchi Campus. The broader Sendai Castle site (Aobayama Park) preserves the iconic stone walls and the equestrian statue of Date Masamune on the honmaru.
Former IJA 8th Division Headquarters Site, Hirosaki
弘前第八師団司令部跡
The Imperial Japanese Army 8th Division (第八師団) was established on 1 October 1898 in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, as part of the post-Sino-Japanese War military expansion. Recruited primarily from the Tohoku prefectures of Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata, the division was one of the northernmost formations in the IJA and became synonymous with the identity of Hirosaki as a "garrison city" (軍都). The division headquarters building, designed by prominent Aomori architect Horie Sakichi, was erected on what is now the Hirosaki University Bunkyocho campus, while the Sannomaru (third enclosure) of Hirosaki Castle served as the army weapons arsenal (兵器支廠). The 8th Division fought in the Russo-Japanese War (Battle of Heikoutai, 1905), the Siberian Intervention (1921), and was permanently stationed in Manchuria from 1940 as the core anti-Soviet defense force along the eastern border. In 1944, the division deployed to the Philippines, where the 5th Infantry Regiment fought at Leyte and the main force defended Luzon until Japan's surrender in August 1945. Within Hirosaki Park (弘前公園), vestiges of the military era survive: the Sannomaru retains the rear gate and pathways of the former weapons arsenal, while the Kita-no-kuruwa houses the Butokuden (武徳殿), a Meiji-era martial arts hall now repurposed as a rest facility. The former Division Commander's Residence (旧第八師団長官舎, 1917), a half-timbered Western-style building, is now a nationally registered tangible cultural property operating as a Starbucks Coffee shop — one of the most architecturally distinctive Starbucks outlets in Japan.
Jōban Coalfield
常磐炭鉱
One of Japan's largest coalfields in Honshu, stretching from southern Fukushima to northern Ibaraki Prefecture. During WWII, the mines were consolidated under government orders and became a critical fuel source for wartime industry, with thousands of Korean forced laborers conscripted to work under brutal conditions as part of the national coal production increase campaign (増産運動).
Kamaishi Naval Bombardment Site
釜石艦砲射撃跡
Site of the first Allied naval bombardment of the Japanese home islands during WWII, where US and British warships shelled the Kamaishi Iron and Steel Works on July 14 and August 9, 1945, killing over 700 civilians.
Misawa Naval Air Base
三沢海軍航空基地
Imperial Japanese Navy air base in northern Honshu, constructed from 1938 and operational by February 1942. According to U.S. Air Force histories of the base, nearby Lake Ogawara served before the Pacific War as a torpedo-bombing practice site for the Pearl Harbor attack because of its similar shallow depth. The base housed the Misawa Naval Air Group (三沢海軍航空隊), which deployed to the South Pacific as a core element of the Rabaul air forces. In 1944 the base was expanded with kamikaze Special Attack facilities. American air attacks destroyed about 90% of the base in 1945. Today it operates as a joint US Air Force / Japan Air Self-Defense Force installation, with the adjacent Misawa Aviation & Science Museum (青森県立三沢航空科学館) preserving the region's aviation heritage.
Nakoso Fu-Go Balloon Bomb Launch Base Site
風船爆弾勿来放球基地跡
Site of the Third Battalion launch base for Operation Fu-Go (ふ号作戦), one of three coastal facilities from which Japan launched hydrogen balloon bombs toward North America during 1944–1945. Located in the Nakoso district of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, the base operated six launch stations with approximately 600 personnel. Today only railway bridge abutments from the former supply spur line survive as physical evidence.
Sendai Air Raid Site
仙台空襲跡
The site of the devastating firebombing of Sendai on July 10, 1945, when 123 B-29 bombers destroyed five square kilometers of the city center — the largest city in the Tohoku region and headquarters of the IJA 2nd Division. Over 1,000 civilians were killed and nearly 12,000 buildings burned in the two-hour incendiary attack.
Sendai City War Reconstruction Memorial Hall
仙台市戦災復興記念館
A memorial museum opened in April 1981 in Aoba Ward, Sendai, dedicated to preserving records of the July 10, 1945 firebombing of Sendai and the city's postwar reconstruction. The permanent exhibition documents how 123 B-29 bombers destroyed five square kilometers of the city center, killing over 1,000 civilians and burning 11,933 buildings. The hall also serves as a civic cultural facility with a 270-seat auditorium.
Tsuchizaki Minato History Museum (Tsuchizaki Air Raid Exhibition)
土崎みなと歴史伝承館（土崎空襲展示室）
The Tsuchizaki Minato History Museum preserves the memory of the Tsuchizaki Air Raid of August 14-15, 1945 — Japan's last aerial bombardment in WWII. On the night Emperor Hirohito had already decided to surrender, 132 B-29 bombers of the 315th Bombardment Wing struck the Nippon Oil Akita Refinery, dropping 12,047 bombs (953.9 tons) over four hours. Over 250 people were killed. The museum's air raid exhibition hall displays a bomb-damaged warehouse column from the refinery, with projection mapping recreating the devastation.
Former 32nd Infantry Regiment Barracks Site (Kajō Park)
旧歩兵第三十二連隊兵営跡（霞城公園）
The former garrison site of the Imperial Japanese Army 32nd Infantry Regiment, located within the Ninomaru (second bailey) of Yamagata Castle (also known as Kajō, "Mist Castle"). The regiment was formed at Akita in 1896 and brought to Yamagata in 1898, after the city purchased the castle grounds and donated them to the Army; it kept the castle as its home garrison for nearly half a century until Japan's surrender in 1945. The 32nd Regiment fought in every major conflict of modern Japan — the Russo-Japanese War, the Siberian Intervention, the invasion of Manchuria, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and ultimately the Battle of Okinawa, where the regiment was virtually annihilated. After the war, the military land was transferred to Yamagata City and opened in 1949 as Kajō Park. Today the park preserves the reconstructed Ninomaru Higashi-Ōtemon Gate (1991), the Honmaru Ichimonji Gate, stone monument markers for the 32nd Regiment, and approximately 1,500 cherry trees originally planted by returning soldiers in 1906. It remains one of the most significant former military garrison sites in the Tōhoku region.
Former Fourth Infantry Regiment Barracks (Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore)
旧歩兵第四連隊兵舎（仙台市歴史民俗資料館）
A surviving wooden Army barracks in Tsutsujigaoka Park, used until August 1945 and later moved within the former military grounds. It now houses Sendai's history and folklore museum.
Haranomachi Army Airfield
原町陸軍飛行場
Former Imperial Japanese Army airfield in Minamisōma, Fukushima Prefecture, established in 1936 as the Hibarigahara Airfield and converted to a military flight training facility in 1940. During the final year of the Pacific War it served as a kamikaze special-attack training base, training pilots of 14 tokkōtai units that fought in the Philippines, off Okinawa and in the homeland. The Nakoso Fu-Go balloon bomb launch base lay about 90 km to the south on the same Hamadōri coast, though no operational link between the two is documented. A memorial at Jingasaki Park Cemetery, erected in 1971, records 71 airmen from the airfield who died in special-attack units.
Kamaishi Daikannon
釜石大観音
A 48.5-meter reinforced-concrete Kannon statue erected in 1970 on the coast of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, to console the souls of those who perished in the two devastating Allied naval bombardments of 1945 and the Meiji- and Showa-era tsunamis.
Tagajo Naval Arsenal Site (Tagajo Garrison Area)
多賀城海軍工廠跡（多賀城駐屯地周辺）
A wartime naval factory for aircraft machine guns and ammunition transformed southeastern Tagajo. Part of its buildings and protective earthworks survives within an active garrison; the wider site has become industrial and other developed land.
Yakushi Park Peace Goddess Statue
薬師公園 平和女神像
A peace monument erected in July 1954 atop Yakushi Hill in central Kamaishi, overlooking the city and harbor, to memorialize the victims of the two 1945 Allied naval bombardments and to pray for lasting peace.
Higashi Nibancho Elementary School Air Raid Memorial
東二番丁小学校 戦災記念碑
A memorial said to have been erected in 1953 at Higashi Nibancho Elementary School in Sendai honoring 23 students killed in the July 10, 1945 air raid. The school grounds also contain a camphor tree that was burned in the firebombing but survived and regenerated, serving as a living symbol of resilience. A bronze statue titled "Natsuko — Eleven-Year-Old Summer" was later donated by citizens to mark the 50th anniversary of the war's end.
Sendai Air Raid Bombing Center Point
仙台空襲爆撃中心点
A small bronze ground plaque installed in December 2021 at the Chris Road Shopping Arcade in downtown Sendai, marking the exact point the U.S. military designated as the aiming center for the July 10, 1945 incendiary bombing raid. It lies in one of the city's busiest downtown shopping arcades.