Heavy Industry
重工業
Steel, munitions, machinery, and industrial production for the war effort.
History
This theme covers the heavy industry that sustained Japan's capacity for war — steel, non-ferrous metals, machinery, vehicles, chemicals and munitions production — and the coal mines and power plants that supplied it. Japan's heavy industry was the backbone of its war machine. Companies like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Sumitomo, and Nippon Steel operated massive complexes producing steel, engines, armaments, and vehicles, alongside the newer Nissan and Nichitsu groups and the state's army and navy arsenals. Industrial zones in Kitakyushu, Osaka, Nagoya, and the Kanto region were critical to military output.
Japanese heavy industry dates from the state-run Yawata Steel Works, which began production in 1901, and expanded in the boom of the First World War. In the 1930s, with the armaments boom after the Manchurian Incident and government industrial controls, heavy and chemical industries rapidly overtook light industry; in 1934 Yawata and several private firms were merged as Japan Iron & Steel (Nippon Seitetsu). After war broke out with China the Planning Board drew up annual materials mobilisation plans giving priority in steel, coal, electricity and labour to munitions, and the Munitions Ministry of 1943 designated leading firms as munitions companies. But Japan depended on overseas iron ore, coking coal, oil and bauxite; once U.S. submarines and aircraft cut the sea lanes from 1943, production began to shrink even before the air raids, and bombing and naval bombardment in 1945 delivered the final blow.
Heavy industry is central to understanding wartime mobilisation. Factory and mine labour came from conscripted workers, mobilised students and the Women's Volunteer Corps, and from workers mobilised from Korea, Chinese labourers brought by force and Allied prisoners of war; responsibility and compensation remain in dispute between Japan and its neighbours. After the war GHQ dissolved the zaibatsu, while plans to remove industrial plant as reparations were greatly relaxed as the Cold War set in, and special procurement for the Korean War from 1950 made these industries the basis of high growth.
Under this theme visitors will find blast furnaces and former steelworks offices, mine headframes and ore-dressing plants, red-brick factory buildings, industrial railways and harbour works, traces of bombing and naval bombardment, and industrial museums run by companies and local governments. The former head office of the Yawata Steel Works and the Miike Coal Mine, among others, are components of the World Heritage Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
Related sites (140)
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.
Osaka Army Arsenal
大阪砲兵工廠
The largest army arsenal in Japan, producing artillery, ammunition, and armored vehicles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Japan Steel Works Muroran Plant
日本製鋼所室蘭製作所
Founded in 1907 with British capital from Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth, the Japan Steel Works Muroran Plant was Imperial Japan's premier heavy ordnance factory. It manufactured large-calibre gun barrels, including the 41 cm main guns of the battleship Mutsu; the often-repeated claim that it made the 46 cm guns of Yamato and Musashi is mistaken, as those were built at Kure Naval Arsenal. On July 15, 1945, a US Navy task unit of three Iowa-class battleships bombarded the plant with 860 sixteen-inch shells, killing over 400 people in Muroran.
Iwahana Explosives Factory Ruins (Gunma-no-Mori Park)
岩鼻火薬製造所跡（群馬の森）
Site of the Iwahana Explosives Manufacturing Plant (1882–1945), established as the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal's gunpowder factory in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. It was the Imperial Japanese Army's sole black-powder and dynamite production facility — and the birthplace of dynamite manufacturing in Japan (1906). The sprawling 1.07-million-square-meter complex produced black powder, smokeless powder, and up to 180 tons of dynamite per month at peak capacity with nearly 4,000 workers. A catastrophic explosion in December 1938 killed 13 workers and damaged 560 nearby homes. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the grounds were divided among Nippon Kayaku Co., the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and the prefectural Gunma-no-Mori Park (opened 1974). The park preserves blast-protection earthworks, concrete tunnel passages, ammunition magazine ruins, a firing-range embankment, and the "Birthplace of Dynamite in Japan" memorial stone (erected 1973).
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.
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.
Sagami Naval Arsenal Ruins
相模海軍工廠跡
Ruins of the Imperial Japanese Navy's dedicated chemical weapons and pyrotechnics arsenal, established in May 1943 in Samukawa Town, Kanagawa Prefecture. The facility was promoted from the Chemical Research Division of the Naval Technical Research Institute (Hiratsuka) to enable mass production of mustard gas (yperite) bombs, gas masks, and incendiary ordnance. At peak capacity over 3,500 workers — including conscripted laborers, Women's Volunteer Corps members, and mobilized students — operated within the 700,000 m² compound. In 2002, buried mustard gas bottles were discovered at the former site during expressway construction, injuring 11 workers and confirming the enduring contamination legacy.
Hitachi Air Raid & Naval Bombardment Memorial (Tōrin Monument)
日立空襲艦砲射撃慰霊碑「陶輪碑」
A memorial monument erected in 1957 at Narisawa Cemetery in Hitachi City to commemorate the victims of the devastating Allied naval bombardment and B-29 air raids on Hitachi in the summer of 1945, which killed over 1,500 civilians and destroyed most of the city.
Heiwa-dōri (Peace Avenue)
平和通り
A one-kilometer cherry-tree-lined avenue in central Hitachi extending from JR Hitachi Station to National Route 6, built during the postwar reconstruction of the city devastated by the July 1945 naval bombardment and B-29 incendiary raids. The avenue symbolizes Hitachi's rebirth and commitment to peace.
Tachikawa Airfield & Army Air Arsenal
立川飛行場・立川陸軍航空工廠
The center of Imperial Japanese Army aviation industry, established in 1922 in western Tokyo. Tachikawa Airfield housed the Army Air Arsenal (陸軍航空工廠) and the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, which together produced over 6,000 aircraft including the Ki-36, Ki-55, and Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters. The complex also contained the Army Air Technical Research Institute (陸軍航空技術研究所). Devastated by 13 air raids from February 1945, the site became US Tachikawa Air Base after the war. Following reversion to Japan in 1977, the western portion was transformed into the Showa Commemorative National Government Park (国営昭和記念公園), opened in 1983.
Nakajima Aircraft Ota Plant
中島飛行機太田製作所
The headquarters factory of Nakajima Aircraft Company — Japan's largest wartime aircraft manufacturer — located in Ota, Gunma Prefecture. Founded by Chikuhei Nakajima in 1917 as a modest research workshop, it grew into an industrial colossus producing iconic fighters including the Ki-43 Hayabusa, Ki-44 Shoki, Ki-84 Hayate, and Ki-49 Donryu heavy bomber. At peak wartime production the Ota complex employed over 100,000 workers. Targeted by seven major B-29 bombing raids between late 1944 and August 1945, the factory was devastated — the February 10, 1945 raid alone killed 152 people and destroyed the eastern half of the plant. After dissolution under Allied occupation, the company's legacy was reborn as Fuji Heavy Industries (1953), now SUBARU Corporation, whose Gunma Manufacturing Division Main Plant occupies the original site at Subaru-cho 1-1, Ota City.
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.
Kawasaki Aircraft Akashi Plant
川崎航空機工業明石工場跡
The Kawasaki Aircraft Akashi Plant was the largest aircraft engine manufacturing facility of the Kawasaki Aircraft Industries Co., Ltd., producing the Ha-40 liquid-cooled engine that powered the Ki-61 Hien ("Tony") fighter. Established in 1940 with nearly 38,000 workers at its peak, the plant manufactured approximately 11,000 engines before being 90% destroyed by a devastating B-29 raid on January 19, 1945 — the first major air raid on Hyogo Prefecture. The site is now occupied by Kawasaki Heavy Industries' modern Akashi Works.
Former Yokohama Specie Bank Headquarters (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History)
旧横浜正金銀行本店本館
The former headquarters of the Yokohama Specie Bank (横浜正金銀行), Japan's preeminent wartime foreign-exchange bank, completed in 1904 in German Neo-Baroque style. Designed by Tsumaki Yorinaka and Endo Oto, the three-story stone-and-brick building with its iconic octagonal dome served as the nerve center of Japan's international financial operations, including wartime foreign-exchange controls and management of enemy-nation assets under the 1941 Enemy Property Control Law. After Japan's surrender, the bank was designated a Closed Institution by GHQ/SCAP in 1946 and dissolved, with operations transferred to the newly established Bank of Tokyo. The building survived both the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake (losing its dome to fire) and the devastating 1945 Yokohama air raids. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1969, it now houses the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History.
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.
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.
Kanmon Railway Tunnel
関門トンネル
Japan's first undersea tunnel (1942), a 3,614-meter railway passage beneath the Kanmon Strait connecting Shimonoseki (Honshu) and Moji (Kyushu). A critical wartime infrastructure achievement that maintained rail links between the two main islands. The Kanmon Strait was the primary target of the U.S. B-29 "Operation Starvation" aerial mining campaign in 1945, and the OSS planned a sabotage mission with 250 agents and 23 tons of explosives — cancelled only by Japan's surrender. A parallel pedestrian tunnel (780 m, opened 1958) allows visitors to walk beneath the strait.
Mitsui Main Building
三井本館
The Mitsui Main Building (三井本館) is a seven-storey neoclassical office building in Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo, completed in 1929 as the headquarters of the Mitsui Zaibatsu — the largest and oldest of Japan's four great zaibatsu conglomerates. Designed by the American firm Trowbridge & Livingston in Beaux-Arts style after the previous building was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, it served as the nerve center of Mitsui's wartime economic empire encompassing some 270 companies involved in banking, trading, mining, shipbuilding, and munitions. During WWII, Mitsui played a central role in Japan's wartime economic control system, channeling resources for military procurement, expanding into occupied territories, and employing forced labor including Allied POWs. Following Japan's surrender, GHQ ordered the dissolution of Mitsui as part of zaibatsu dismantlement. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1998, the building today houses Mitsui Fudosan headquarters and the Mitsui Memorial Museum.
Yoshimi Hyakuana (Underground Munitions Factory Ruins)
吉見百穴（地下軍需工場跡）
A nationally designated historic site in Yoshimi Town, Saitama Prefecture, comprising 219 lateral cave tombs (yokoana) carved into a tuff hillside during the Kofun period (6th–7th century). In 1944–1945, the Imperial Japanese military commandeered the site to construct a massive underground factory for the Nakajima Aircraft Company, intended to produce aircraft engines safe from American air raids. An estimated 3,000 to 3,500 Korean laborers, working in round-the-clock shifts, excavated what is reported as approximately 8.4 kilometers of interconnected tunnels in a grid pattern beneath and around the ancient tombs, destroying over 10 designated cave tombs in the process. The factory never reached full production before Japan's surrender in August 1945. Today, visitors can view both the ancient burial caves and the sealed entrances to the wartime tunnel network—a striking juxtaposition of 1,400-year-old funerary archaeology and 20th-century wartime industrial desperation.
Former Ministry of Commerce & Industry → Ministry of Munitions Site (METI Building)
旧商工省→軍需省跡（経済産業省総合庁舎）
Site of the wartime Ministry of Munitions (軍需省, Gunjushō), established November 1, 1943 by reorganizing the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (商工省) and absorbing the Planning Board's national mobilization functions. Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki concurrently served as the first Minister of Munitions, concentrating wartime production control in his own hands. The ministry directed all military-industrial production — aircraft, ordnance, shipbuilding, and strategic materials — under a centralized command economy. Located at Kasumigaseki 1-3-1, Chiyoda Ward, the site is now occupied by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) headquarters, the direct bureaucratic successor through the lineage of Commerce Ministry → Munitions Ministry → Commerce Ministry (restored 1945) → MITI (1949) → METI (2001).
Moji Port (Former Moji Customs & Mojiko Retro)
門司港（旧門司税関・門司港レトロ）
Imperial Japan's most critical continental gateway port, handling over 2 million troops and vast quantities of military supplies shipped to Manchuria, China, and Korea from the 1930s through 1945. The 1912 Renaissance-style red-brick Former Moji Customs building — designed under the supervision of master architect Tsumaki Yorinaka — survives as the district's iconic landmark. After the war, Moji Port served as a major repatriation port receiving hundreds of thousands of returning soldiers and civilians. Designated a Japan Heritage site as part of the "Nostalgic Kanmon Strait" cultural landscape.
Yokohama North Dock (Mizuho Wharf)
横浜ノース・ドック（瑞穂埠頭）
Yokohama's Mizuho Wharf, constructed from 1925 to 1945 as a major foreign-trade pier, became a major wartime port for shipping munitions and materiel across the Pacific. Seized by US occupation forces on September 2, 1945, it served as the principal Army port for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and remains an active US military installation (FAC 3067) in the heart of Yokohama today.
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.
South Manchuria Railway Tokyo Office Site
南満州鉄道株式会社東京支社跡
The South Manchuria Railway Company (南満州鉄道株式会社, commonly known as Mantetsu/満鉄) maintained its Tokyo branch office as the critical liaison between the colonial enterprise in Manchuria and the Japanese government in the capital. Originally established at Azabu-Mamiana-chō in 1907 when the headquarters relocated to Dalian, the Tokyo office later moved to Akasaka-ku Aoi-chō 2-banchi (present-day Toranomon 2-chōme), where a purpose-built reinforced concrete building was completed in 1936 during President Yōsuke Matsuoka's tenure. The "Mantetsu Building" (満鉄ビル) served as the nerve center for the company's Japan-side operations — lobbying the Diet, coordinating with the military and zaibatsu, managing investment flows, and operating the Manchuria Resource Exhibition Hall (満洲資源陳列所) which showcased Manchurian natural resources and industrial potential to investors and policymakers. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the building was requisitioned by SCAP/GHQ and repurposed as a U.S. Embassy annex and residence for occupation forces families. The original structure was demolished and replaced by the current Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Building (商船三井ビルディング, formerly Toranomon Dai Building) completed in 1979.
Former Army Provisions Depot (Fukagawa)
旧陸軍糧秣本廠跡（深川）
The headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's provisions supply system, established in 1897 on the former Etchujima drill ground in Fukagawa, Koto Ward, Tokyo. The depot was responsible for the procurement, manufacture, storage, and distribution of food for soldiers and fodder for military horses across the entire army. Operating from the Meiji era through Japan's defeat in 1945, it was the central node in a nationwide network of branch depots including Ujina (Hiroshima, 1903) and Osaka (1908). The site at Etchujima 1-chome is now occupied by the Yamatane Corporation warehouse complex, with no original military structures remaining above ground.
Shin-Tanna Tunnel (Bullet Train Project Wartime Remnant)
新丹那トンネル（弾丸列車計画遺構）
The Shin-Tanna Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the Tokaido Shinkansen (7,959 m), running beneath the Tanna Mountains between Atami and Mishima in Shizuoka Prefecture. Construction began in August 1941 as part of the wartime Dangan Ressha (弾丸列車, "Bullet Train") plan — an ambitious Tokyo–Shimonoseki high-speed railway conceived in 1939. By the time work was halted in 1943 due to deteriorating war conditions, approximately 2 km of pilot tunnels had been excavated from both portals. The tunnel was left abandoned until 1959, when it was resumed for the new Tokaido Shinkansen, opening on 1 October 1964. It is the most significant surviving remnant of the wartime bullet train project.
Former Nippon Kangyo Bank Headquarters
日本勧業銀行本店跡
Site of the former headquarters of Nippon Kangyo Bank (日本勧業銀行) in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. During WWII, the bank served as the central institution for issuing wartime government bonds (戦時公債), lottery-style savings bonds (割増金付戦時債券), and the "Victory Tickets" (勝札) that became the precursor to Japan's modern national lottery (宝くじ). The original Meiji-era building (1899, designed by Tsumaki Yorinaka) was sold and relocated in 1926 and succeeded by a second head office completed in 1929; the site later became the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Head Office Building (1981) and subsequently the Mizuho Bank Uchisaiwaicho Head Office Building, which was demolished in 2022 for redevelopment.
Kinkaseki POW Camp (Jinguashi Allied POW Memorial Park)
金瓜石捕虜収容所
The Kinkaseki Prisoner of War Camp was one of the most brutal Japanese POW camps in colonial Taiwan (Formosa), operational from November 1942 to March 1945 at Kinkaseki (present-day Jinguashi), Ruifang District, New Taipei City. Over 1,100 British Commonwealth and Allied prisoners — predominantly British, with Australian, Canadian, Dutch, and American servicemen — were forced to perform gruelling slave labour deep inside the adjacent copper mine under extreme conditions including temperatures exceeding 40°C, starvation rations, frequent beatings, and no safety provisions. Of the approximately 430 Allied POW deaths across all fourteen Japanese camps on Taiwan, the majority occurred at Kinkaseki. The camp closed in March 1945 when Allied naval interdiction made ore shipment to Japan impossible, and surviving prisoners were relocated to Kukutsu camp. The site lay forgotten until its rediscovery in 1990. On 23 November 1997, an international memorial was dedicated on the original camp grounds, and in 2011 a bronze "Mates" sculpture depicting two emaciated prisoners was unveiled. The memorial park — now known as the Taiwan POW Memorial and Peace Park — includes a 56-foot Wall of Names listing all POWs by rank and origin.
Sun Moon Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant (Daguan / Mingtan Power Plants)
日月潭水力發電所
Colonial Taiwan's largest hydroelectric complex, built by Taiwan Electric Power Company (台灣電力株式會社) between 1919 and 1934 at Sun Moon Lake, Nantou Prefecture. With five 22 MW generators (about 100 MW rated output), it was the largest hydroelectric power plant in Asia upon completion. The facility supplied over 60% of Taiwan's total electricity, powering wartime industries including aluminum smelting, chemical manufacturing, and military production. Heavily bombed by US aircraft in March 1945, destroying the main transformers and crippling Taiwan's industrial power supply. Now preserved as the Daguan Power Plant (大觀發電廠) and Mingtan Power Plant (明潭發電廠), both still operated by Taipower.
Railway Department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan (Railway Department Park)
台湾総督府交通局鉄道部（鉄道部園区）
The Railway Department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan was the colonial administrative headquarters for railway transport across Taiwan from 1919 to 1945. Located adjacent to the Taipei North Gate (北門), the English half-timbered main building (brick below, timber above) was designed by architect Moriyama Matsunosuke and completed in two phases in 1919 and 1920, replacing the earlier Qing-dynasty Taipei Machinery Bureau on the same site. During the war years the department managed all military logistics rail movements across the island, coordinating troop transport, materiel shipments, and industrial freight for Japan's southern front operations. After 1945 the complex served as the headquarters of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) until 1990. Designated a National Monument in 2007, the six surviving structures — including the main hall, dining hall, octagonal lavatory building, power room, engineering office, and 1943 wartime command center — underwent meticulous restoration. The park reopened in July 2020 as a branch of the National Taiwan Museum, exhibiting Taiwan's railway heritage from the colonial era through the postwar period.
Bank of Taiwan Head Office Building
臺灣銀行本店
The Bank of Taiwan Head Office Building (completed 1937) at No. 120, Section 1, Chongqing South Road, Taipei, was the financial nerve center of Japanese colonial Taiwan. Designed by architect Yoshitoki Nishimura in a neoclassical style with massive granite Corinthian columns, the three-story reinforced-concrete building replaced an earlier 1903 structure damaged by termites. As the sole issuer of Taiwanese yen banknotes from 1899, the Bank of Taiwan financed colonial industrial expansion, wartime military procurement, and trade networks spanning South China and Southeast Asia. The building sustained roof damage during Allied air raids on Taipei in 1945, was repaired postwar, and resumed operations on May 20, 1946 under ROC administration. Designated a Taipei Municipal Historic Site in 1998, it remains the active headquarters of the Bank of Taiwan.
Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau
台湾総督府専売局
The Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau (臺灣總督府專賣局), built 1912–1922 and designed by Matsunosuke Moriyama, was the administrative headquarters of Japan's colonial monopoly system in Taiwan. The Bureau controlled the production and sale of opium, camphor, salt, tobacco, alcohol, matches, petroleum, and measuring instruments — revenues that at their peak constituted about 40% of the colonial government's total income. The Renaissance-style red-brick building on Nanchang Road in Taipei survives today as the headquarters of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, designated a National Monument in 1998.
Port of Kaohsiung (Former Takao Harbor)
高雄港（旧打狗港）
Taiwan's largest commercial port and Japan's critical southern resource relay hub during World War II. Originally a shallow lagoon known as Takao (打狗), the port underwent three phases of Japanese colonial harbor construction (1908–1944) that transformed it into a deep-water industrial port. Under the wartime southern advance policy (南進政策), Kaohsiung served as the primary transshipment node for Southeast Asian raw materials — oil, rubber, bauxite, and tin — routed to Japan's home islands. Adjacent zaibatsu factories processed bauxite into aluminum for aircraft production. Complementing the nearby Zuoying Naval Base (左營軍港/高雄警備府), the port itself handled military logistics, troop transport, and supply staging for operations toward the Philippines and Southeast Asia. From October 1944, US carrier and land-based aircraft devastated the harbor in repeated raids; the Japanese Navy ultimately scuttled five large vessels to block the harbor entrance against anticipated American landings. The Enoura Maru POW transport was bombed in the harbor on 9 January 1945, killing approximately 300–400 Allied prisoners of war.
Ciaotou Sugar Factory (Kio-a-thau Sugar Refinery)
橋仔頭製糖所（台湾製糖橋仔頭工場）
Taiwan's first modern mechanized sugar factory, established in 1901 by the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company (台灣製糖株式會社) during Japanese colonial rule. Located in Ciaotou (then Kio-a-thau), Kaohsiung, it symbolized Japan's drive to industrialize Taiwan's sugar output for the empire. During WWII, the factory produced ethanol as a military fuel substitute, making it a strategic target for Allied bombing. Today the site is preserved as the Taiwan Sugar Museum, with 19 designated heritage structures including Japanese-era dormitories, a Dutch-colonial-style office, air-raid shelters, and a red-brick water tower.
Jinguashi Mine (New Taipei City Gold Museum)
金瓜石鉱山（黄金博物館）
The Jinguashi Mine (金瓜石鉱山, Kinkaseki kōzan) was one of the largest gold and copper mines in East Asia, located in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Placer gold was found in the Keelung River in 1890 and the Jinguashi ore body in 1893, during the late Qing dynasty, and under Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945) the mine came to be known as the foremost precious-metal mine in Asia and was Taiwan's leading copper producer. Operated successively by the Tanaka Group, Ushiroku Shintarō's Kinkaseki Mining Company (from 1925) and Nippon Mining Company (日本鉱業, from 1933), the mine's gold output peaked around 1938 at over 70,000 taels (roughly 2.6 tonnes) a year; copper output in 1936 is given as 7,350 tons or about 11,000 tons depending on the source. During WWII, the mine was designated a critical strategic resource; production was intensified using forced labour from Allied POWs held at the adjacent Kinkaseki POW Camp. US Navy wartime intelligence identified the Kinkaseki gold mines as among Imperial Japan's largest gold sources. Mining continued under the ROC government's Taiwan Metals Mining Company until closure in 1987. The site was transformed into the Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園區) in November 2004, Taiwan's first ecological museum, now known as the New Taipei City Gold Museum.
Takao Port Station (Hamasen Railway Cultural Park)
高雄港驛（ハマセン鉄道文化園区）
Originally Takao Station (打狗驛), Kaohsiung's first railway station built in 1900 during Japanese colonial rule. It served as a critical rail-to-port logistics hub connecting Taiwan's longitudinal railway to Kaohsiung Harbor for military and industrial material transport. Renamed Kaohsiung Port Station (高雄港驛) in 1941 when it became a dedicated freight terminal. Largely destroyed by US air raids late in the war, rebuilt in 1947, and continued operating until 2008. Now preserved as the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park and Takao Railway Museum.
Asano Cement Kaohsiung Plant (Taiwan Cement Kaohsiung Plant)
浅野セメント株式会社高雄工場
Taiwan's first modern cement factory, established in 1917 by the Asano zaibatsu at the foot of Shoushan (Takao Mountain) in Kaohsiung. The plant exploited high-quality limestone deposits to supply cement for harbor construction, military installations, and infrastructure across colonial Taiwan, producing up to 410,000 tonnes annually by 1937. Nationalized in 1946 as Taiwan Cement Corporation's Kaohsiung Plant. Three original 1918 lime kilns and a red-brick warehouse survive as registered historical buildings.
Kagi Station (Chiayi Railway Station)
嘉義驛（かぎえき）
A major railway station in Kagi (Chiayi), Taiwan, originally opened in 1902 and rebuilt in 1933 as one of Taiwan's early reinforced-concrete stations. Serving as the gateway to the Alishan Forest Railway and the junction of three railway systems (TRA mainline, sugar railway, and forest railway), it was a critical military transport node during WWII. Allied bombing on April 3 and May 1, 1945 severely damaged the rail yard and surrounding district. The station also witnessed the public execution of four Chiayi city councilors during the February 28 Incident (1947). The 1933 building survives today as a designated cultural heritage site.
Ensuiko Sugar Manufacturing Co. — Xinying Sugar Factory
塩水港製糖株式会社・新営製糖所
Headquarters of the Ensuiko Sugar Manufacturing Company (鹽水港製糖株式會社), one of the 'Big Four' Japanese sugar companies in colonial Taiwan. Established in 1907 at Xinying (新營), Tainan Prefecture, the factory grew into the nerve center of an empire that operated four sugar mills, three wartime alcohol distilleries, and two refineries in the Japanese home islands. During the Pacific War, its affiliated alcohol plants produced industrial ethanol from sugarcane molasses to supplement Japan's critical fuel shortages. Heavily bombed by Allied air raids late in the war, the factory was so badly damaged that cane had to be diverted to the neighboring Kishiuchi (岸內) mill. Taken over by Taiwan Sugar Corporation in 1946. The original 1908 European-style headquarters building (原鹽水港製糖株式會社總社辦公室) survives as a Tainan City Designated Monument.
Japan Aluminum Co. Kaohsiung Plant (Nippon Aluminium Takao Works)
日本アルミニウム株式会社高雄工場
Colonial Taiwan's first and principal aluminum smelter, established in 1935 as the Takao Works of Nippon Aluminium Co., Ltd. (日本アルミニウム株式会社) by a consortium including Furukawa Electric, Tokai Electrode, and Taisei Chemical. The plant began producing aluminum ingots in 1936 (November, according to Japanese sources), powered by cheap hydroelectricity from the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) power system. It refined bauxite imported from Southeast Asia into aircraft-grade aluminum essential for Japan's wartime aviation industry. Heavily damaged by USAAF bombing in 1944–1945, the factory was taken over by the ROC government postwar and reorganized as Taiwan Aluminum Corporation (台灣鋁業公司). The original factory site in Qianzhen District has been redeveloped as MLD台鋁生活商場, preserving the iconic Y-shaped steel beam structure from the 1970s-era expansion.
Hualien Port
花蓮港
A major port on the east coast of Taiwan constructed by the Japanese colonial government between 1931 and 1939. Originally built as a commercial harbor using innovative land-excavation engineering, it was converted to military use during WWII for naval logistics and resource shipment, and was heavily damaged by Allied air raids in 1945.
Alishan Forest Railway
阿里山森林鉄道
A narrow-gauge mountain railway in Chiayi County, Taiwan, built by the Japanese colonial government beginning in 1906 to extract precious Taiwanese cypress (hinoki) and Taiwania timber from the Alishan mountain range. Reaching an elevation of 2,451 meters, the 86-kilometer network featured innovative Z-shaped switchbacks, over 50 tunnels, and 77 bridges. During WWII, the railway served as a critical resource extraction infrastructure, supplying timber for military construction across the Japanese Empire. Designated Taiwan's first national-level cultural landscape in 2019.
Taiwan Electric Power Company Headquarters
臺灣電力株式會社本社
Headquarters of the Taiwan Electric Power Company (台灣電力株式會社), established in 1919 as a semi-governmental enterprise during the Japanese colonial period. Located behind the Governor-General's Office in Taipei, the company managed all electricity generation and distribution across Taiwan, including the landmark Sun Moon Lake hydroelectric project, providing critical power for wartime industrial production. The headquarters was destroyed by American bombing in 1945; it is listed among the buildings hit in the Taipei Air Raid of May 31.
Japan Aluminum Hualien Port Factory
日本アルミニウム花蓮港工場
A wartime aluminum smelting factory established in Hualien, Taiwan by Nippon Aluminium Co. (日本アルミニウム株式会社) in the late 1930s. Powered by hydroelectric stations on the Mugua River (木瓜溪), later joined by the Liwu River (立霧溪) station, the plant produced aluminum ingots for Imperial Japan's military aircraft production until it was destroyed by American air raids in 1945.
Former Hitachi Aircraft Tachikawa Factory Substation
旧日立航空機立川工場変電所
The Former Hitachi Aircraft Tachikawa Factory Transformer Substation in Higashiyamato, Tokyo, is one of the few surviving bomb-damaged industrial buildings in the Tokyo area. Built in 1938 as part of an aircraft engine factory, the reinforced concrete substation bears countless bullet holes and shrapnel scars from three U.S. air raids in 1945. Designated a cultural property by Higashiyamato City in 1995, it stands in Higashiyamato Minami Park as a powerful memorial to the devastation of strategic bombing.
Former Nippon Kogaku (Nikon) Oi Plant
日本光学工業大井製作所跡
Site of the former Nippon Kogaku Kogyo (now Nikon Corporation) Oi Plant in Shinagawa, Tokyo — the company's founding factory established in 1918. During WWII, this facility was the nerve center of Japan's military optical industry, producing bombsights, rangefinders, periscopes, and binoculars for the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army. At its wartime peak, Nippon Kogaku operated up to 20 factories with 25,000 employees. The Oi Plant notably produced the massive 15-meter rangefinders installed on the battleships Yamato and Musashi. After the war the company reinvented itself as the camera maker Nikon; in 2024 Nikon moved its headquarters back to the site.
Former Sumitomo Metal Industries Propeller Factory
住友金属工業プロペラ製造所跡
Site of the former Sumitomo Metal Industries Propeller Manufacturing Plant in Sakurajima, Konohana-ku, Osaka. Established in 1933 as Japan's largest aircraft propeller factory, Sumitomo produced 66% of all Japanese military aircraft propellers during WWII — approximately 89,885 units — including constant-speed propellers for the Zero fighter, under license from Hamilton Standard. The factory was devastated by U.S. incendiary bombing on June 15, 1945.
Toyota Motor Koromo Plant (now Honsha Plant)
トヨタ自動車工業 挙母工場（現・本社工場）
Toyota's first mass-production automobile factory, completed in 1938 in the town of Koromo (now Toyota City), Aichi Prefecture. Built by Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. — spun off from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works in 1937 — to manufacture trucks and passenger cars, the Koromo Plant was designated a munitions factory during WWII, producing military trucks, aircraft engine components, and other war materiel for the Imperial Japanese Army. On August 14, 1945, the plant was bombed by the U.S. Army Air Forces, destroying approximately a quarter of its facilities. Now known as the Honsha Plant, it remains Toyota Motor Corporation's headquarters plant and the birthplace of Japan's automobile industry.
Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel (Moji Side)
関門トンネル人道（門司側）
The Moji-side entrance to the Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel, a 780-meter underwater walkway beneath the Kanmon Strait connecting Kyushu and Honshu. Construction of the roadway tunnel began in 1937 as strategic wartime infrastructure to ensure a protected Honshu-Kyushu link immune to aerial bombardment. The tunnel was bored through during WWII but not completed until 1958.
NKK (Nihon Kokan) Tsurumi Shipyard
日本鋼管鶴見造船所
NKK Tsurumi Shipyard was a major wartime shipbuilding facility in Yokohama that produced escort ships (kaibōkan), submarine chasers, and other naval vessels for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Established in 1940 when Nippon Kokan merged with the Tsurumi Steelmaking and Shipbuilding Company, the yard was a key component of Japan's wartime naval construction program in the Keihin Industrial Zone.
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.
Kawanishi Aircraft Takarazuka Factory
川西航空機宝塚工場
Major wartime aircraft factory of the Kawanishi Aircraft Company in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, which produced the N1K Shiden/Shiden-Kai fighter and components for the H8K Emily flying boat. Heavily bombed on July 24, 1945, the site was demolished in 1949 and is now the Hanshin Racecourse.
Nakajima Aircraft Utsunomiya Plant
中島飛行機宇都宮製作所
Nakajima Aircraft Company's Utsunomiya Plant was a major aircraft assembly facility established in January 1944 in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture. The plant was dedicated to producing the Ki-84 Hayate (疾風, 'Frank'), the Imperial Japanese Army's most advanced fighter of the war, completing 727 aircraft by July 1945. Some accounts also credit the plant with a share of Ki-43 Hayabusa (隼, 'Oscar') production. The site survived Allied bombing largely intact and after the war became Fuji Heavy Industries (now Subaru Corporation) Aerospace Division, which continues aircraft manufacturing at the same location today.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kumamoto Aircraft Works
三菱重工業熊本航空機製作所
A major wartime aircraft factory built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Kengun, Kumamoto City, as a dispersed branch of the Nagoya Aircraft Works. Operational from January 1944, the plant assembled 42 Ki-67 Hiryu (Flying Dragon) heavy bombers before war's end. The factory complex, designated the 9th Manufacturing Works (第九製作所), was a government-built, privately-operated (官設民営) facility occupying approximately 1.4 million tsubo in what is now JGSDF Camp Kengun. Subjected to devastating American air raids in March and May 1945, the factory also incorporated underground dispersal facilities at Yoneda. The sole surviving assembly building — a distinctive iron-frame structure with triangular sawtooth roofing — remained within Camp Kengun as a war heritage site until plans for its demolition due to aging were announced.
Nagoya POW Camp
名古屋俘虜収容所
The Nagoya POW Camp was a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp system established in the Nagoya area of Aichi Prefecture during World War II. The main camp headquarters was set up in Taisei National School in Nagoya, where the Tōkai Army headquarters was then located, on April 5, 1945, as part of a nationwide reorganization of POW administration. The Nagoya camp group administered multiple branch camps across the Chubu region where Allied prisoners — primarily American, British, Dutch, and Canadian servicemen — were subjected to forced labor at munitions factories, railway workshops, and mining operations run by major Japanese corporations including Nippon Sharyo (Nippon Rolling Stock Company), Mitsui Mining, and Ishihara Sangyo. About 3,300 Allied prisoners were held in the eleven branch camps of the Nagoya camp system at the end of the war.
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.
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.
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).
NKK Kawasaki Steel Works (Nippon Kokan)
日本鋼管川崎製鉄所
Founded in 1912 as Japan's first privately owned steelmaker, the NKK Kawasaki Works in the Keihin Industrial Zone was a critical wartime producer of steel plates, seamless pipes, and heavy plates for the Imperial Japanese Navy's warships and military equipment. Severely damaged by Allied bombing raids in 1945, the works were rebuilt post-war and the site continues operation today as JFE Steel East Japan Works (Keihin District).
Second Naval Fuel Depot (Yokkaichi)
第二海軍燃料廠
The Second Naval Fuel Depot (第二海軍燃料廠) in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture was Imperial Japan's largest oil refinery, with a daily capacity of 25,000 barrels. Established in 1941 in the Shiohama district, it produced aviation gasoline, liquid fuels, and lubricating oil for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The facility and its associated Utsube River Oil Refinery were ranked first among Japan's aviation fuel production centers by 1945. From June to August 1945, US B-29 bombers of the 315th Bombardment Wing conducted repeated precision raids that destroyed the refinery complex. Yokkaichi itself was firebombed on June 18, 1945, killing 736 civilians. After the war, the site was converted to civilian petrochemical use and became the foundation of the Yokkaichi industrial kombinat.
Tokuyama Naval Fuel Depot
徳山海軍燃料廠
One of the Imperial Japanese Navy's principal fuel storage and refining facilities, established in 1905 as a coal briquette plant in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and reorganized as a naval fuel depot in 1921. Redesignated the Third Naval Fuel Depot in 1941, it processed petroleum, aviation fuel, and synthetic fuels for the Combined Fleet. Devastated by B-29 bombing raids on May 10 and July 26-27, 1945, its destruction crippled the Navy's remaining fuel supply. The site was transferred to Idemitsu Kosan in 1956 and now forms the core of the Shunan petrochemical complex.
Harima Shipyard (Aioi Works)
播磨造船所
Harima Shipyard in Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture was one of Imperial Japan's key wartime shipbuilding facilities. Acquired by Suzuki Shoten in 1916, it grew from 250 to over 20,000 workers during WWII. Its Matsunoura plant, built in 1943-44 under Navy directive, mass-produced wartime standard ships (戦時標準船) using assembly-line methods, completing 163 vessels totaling 136,490 gross tons — ranking first among modified E-type builders. On July 28, 1945, approximately 30 US carrier aircraft bombed the shipyard, killing 39 people.
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.
Ishikawajima Shipyard
石川島造船所
Established in 1853 on Ishikawajima at the mouth of the Sumida River (present-day Tsukuda, Chūō-ku), Tokyo, Ishikawajima Shipyard was Japan's first Western-style shipyard and a major warship builder for the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. It produced destroyers, escort vessels, and other naval craft, and is the predecessor of today's IHI Corporation.
Mitsubishi Arms Sumiyoshi Tunnel Factory Ruins
三菱兵器住吉トンネル工場跡
Remains of an underground torpedo factory built in 1944 by Mitsubishi Arms inside six parallel tunnels in northern Nagasaki. Located 2.3 km from the atomic bomb hypocenter, the tunnels survived the August 9, 1945 bombing largely intact and served as emergency shelters. Two tunnels are now open to the public as a peace memorial site.
Koza Naval Arsenal
高座海軍工廠
A major Imperial Japanese Navy arsenal built from 1943 and formally completed in 1944 in the Zama–Yamato–Ebina area of Kanagawa Prefecture. The facility produced 128 Mitsubishi J2M Raiden ("Thunderbolt") interceptor fighters and mobilized approximately 8,400 Taiwanese teenage boys (台湾少年工) as wartime laborers — one of the most significant examples of colonial youth labor mobilization during the Pacific War.
Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Toshiba) Horikawa-cho Plant
東京芝浦電気堀川町工場
A major Toshiba industrial facility in Kawasaki that produced military electronics, vacuum tubes, wireless communication equipment, and radar components during WWII. Established in 1908 as the Tokyo Electric Kawasaki Factory in the Keihin Industrial Zone, it was severely damaged in the April 15, 1945 Kawasaki air raids. The site was redeveloped as Lazona Kawasaki after the factory closed in 2000.
Tokyo Imperial University — Second Faculty of Engineering
東京帝国大学第二工学部
The Second Faculty of Engineering of Tokyo Imperial University was established in Chiba City in 1942 for wartime military research and engineer training. Its ten departments — including ordnance, aeronautics, shipbuilding, and applied chemistry — trained engineers for wartime industry. The campus later became part of Chiba University.
Tokyo Second Army Arsenal (Itabashi Powder Works)
東京第二陸軍造兵廠（板橋火薬製造所）
Site of the Imperial Japanese Army's Second Tokyo Arsenal, Japan's first government-operated gunpowder factory established in 1876 on the former Kaga Domain estate in Itabashi. The facility produced explosives, propellants, and ammunition components, and housed the Army Explosives Research Institute. Designated a National Historic Site in 2017, the surviving brick structures and ballistic testing tunnels are preserved in Kaga Park.
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.
Muroran Naval Bombardment Memorial
室蘭艦砲射撃跡
Memorial site at Muroran Hachiman Shrine commemorating the July 15, 1945 naval bombardment of Muroran by a US Navy task unit of three Iowa-class battleships. The bombardment targeted the Japan Steel Works and Wanishi Ironworks, firing 860 sixteen-inch shells that killed 485 people including 439 civilians and devastated much of the city. It was one of the few Allied naval bombardments of Hokkaido.
Nakajima Aircraft Musashino Dispersal Factory Site (Musashino-no-Mori Park)
中島飛行機武蔵製作所疎開工場跡（武蔵野の森公園）
Park beside the former Army Chofu Airfield in the Fuchu-Chofu-Mitaka area of western Tokyo, not far from the site of the Nakajima Aircraft Musashi Plant. Fighters based at Chofu for the defence of the capital were sheltered in concrete revetments built around the airfield. Now Musashino-no-Mori Park, the site preserves concrete aircraft revetments (entaigō) as tangible reminders of Tokyo's wartime air defence.
Aso Mining Yoshikuma Coal Mine Ruins
麻生鉱業吉隈炭鉱跡
Ruins of the Yoshikuma coal mine in the Chikuho coalfield, operated by Aso Mining (麻生鉱業), the family company of the Aso political dynasty. During WWII, approximately 300 Allied POWs (197 Australian, 101 British, 2 Dutch) were held at Fukuoka POW Branch Camp #26 from May to August 1945 and forced to work underground. Two Australian POWs—John Watson and Leslie Edgar George Wilkie—died at the mine. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 10,000 Korean laborers were also mobilized to work in Aso Mining's pits under harsh conditions.
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.
Wushantou Reservoir & Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park
烏山頭水庫（八田與一記念園区）
Wushantou Reservoir in Guantian District, Tainan, is the core of the Chianan Irrigation System (嘉南大圳), the largest irrigation project in East Asia at the time of its completion in 1930. Designed by Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi (八田與一), the reservoir transformed the Chianan Plain into Taiwan's most productive agricultural region, vital for wartime rice and sugarcane production. The adjacent Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park preserves his residence and bronze statue.
Qishan Sugar Factory & Railway Station
旗山製糖所（旗山驛）
Former sugar factory and narrow-gauge railway station in Qishan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, built during the Japanese colonial period. Established in 1909 as the Qiwei Sugar Manufacturing Plant by the Takasago Sugar Company, the factory became a key node in southern Taiwan's extensive sugar railway network. During World War II, sugar production was intensified to supply alcohol fuel for the Japanese military, making the factory a potential industrial target; it is reported to have been damaged by Allied bombing. The distinctive octagonal-roofed Qishan Station (built 1913-1915), blending Tudor and Japanese architectural styles, is the best-known surviving station building of the Qiwei Line and is now preserved as a designated historic building and the Sugar Railway Story Hall museum.
Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company Headquarters
台湾製糖株式会社本社
Headquarters of the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company (Taiwan Seito), one of the largest sugar enterprises in colonial Taiwan. Founded by the Mitsui zaibatsu in 1900, the company pioneered modern sugar refining on the island and came to control about a dozen mills across Taiwan.
Old Kaohsiung Station Building
高雄驛（旧駅舎）
The Old Kaohsiung Station, completed in 1941 by Shimizu Corporation in the Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式), is one of the finest examples of Japanese colonial railway architecture in Taiwan. During WWII it served as a critical military transportation hub for southern Taiwan, facilitating troop and supply movements for the Japanese Imperial forces. The 2,500-tonne building was moved 82.6 meters in 2002 to accommodate railway underground construction, then returned to its original location in 2021 as the centerpiece of the new Kaohsiung Main Station complex.
Taiwan Development Company Headquarters Site
台湾拓殖株式会社本社跡
Former headquarters of the Taiwan Development Company (Taiwan Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha), a major Japanese "national policy company" (kokusaku kaisha) established in 1936 to direct colonial resource exploitation across Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Located in the Sakaemachi (榮町) commercial district of Taipei, the company controlled mining, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and industrial development, playing a central role in wartime resource mobilization before it was closed down after the war and formally dissolved in 1947.
Taiwan Fruit Company (Banana Pier, Kaohsiung)
臺灣青果株式會社
The Taiwan Fruit Company (臺灣青果株式會社) was a Japanese colonial-era monopoly enterprise that controlled banana exports from Taiwan to Japan. Established in 1924 under the auspices of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, the company operated from facilities near Kaohsiung Port, where bananas — Taiwan's second-largest export commodity after sugar — were inspected, packed, and shipped to Japanese markets. The Banana Pier warehouse (香蕉棚) at Pier No. 3 of Kaohsiung Port, however, is a post-war structure built in 1963 for the revived banana export trade; it is a registered historic building of Kaohsiung City, not a surviving facility of the colonial company.
Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park (Morisaka)
林田山林場（森坂）
A major Japanese colonial-era logging camp and sawmill in eastern Taiwan, known as Morisaka (森坂) during the Japanese period. Established in 1918 by the Hualien Harbor Timber Company, the site expanded significantly in 1939 under Taiwan Xingye Company to supply timber for wartime military construction. Its well-preserved Japanese-style dormitory village and narrow-gauge forestry railway make it one of the most complete surviving logging settlements in Taiwan, now designated a historical village by Hualien County.
Yuanshan Water Shrine
圓山水神社
The Yuanshan Water Shrine (Maruyama Suijinja) is a rare, well-preserved Japanese Shinto shrine ruin in Taipei, built in 1938 (Shōwa 13) beside the Yuanshan Reservoir to honor workers who died during the construction of the Grass Mountain Waterworks (Sōzan Suidō), Taipei's second modern water supply system. The site retains stone lanterns (tōrō), guardian lion-dogs (komainu), a purification basin (chōzuya) and the shrine-name stele; the original worship hall has not survived. Constructed through donations from employees of the Taipei Waterworks Department, it served as both a memorial to the fallen engineers and laborers and a spiritual guardian of the water source. The shrine and the broader Grass Mountain Waterworks were designated a Taipei Municipal Historic Site in 2004.
Taihoku Station (Third-Generation Building)
台北驛（第三代駅舎）
The third-generation Taipei Station, completed in 1940 and in service by 1941 in modernist style, was the principal railway station in colonial Taiwan and a critical military transportation hub during WWII. It was demolished in 1986.
Western Trunk Line Coastal Section (Dachia–Changhua)
縦貫線海線（台中海線・大甲—彰化）
The Coastal Line (海線) of Taiwan's Western Trunk Railway, completed in 1922, was built between Zhunan and Changhua along the island's western seaboard as a strategic alternative to the congested Mountain Line (山線). Designed for military transport redundancy and industrial freight capacity, it became essential wartime infrastructure ensuring uninterrupted north-south logistics across Taiwan.
Songshan Tobacco Factory (Songshan Cultural and Creative Park)
松山煙草工場
The Songshan Tobacco Factory was built in 1937 as the Matsuyama Tobacco Plant of the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau, and is described as Taiwan's first modern specialised cigarette factory. During WWII, the factory produced cigarettes for both military and civilian consumption across the Japanese Empire. Featuring outstanding modernist industrial architecture designed by Japanese planners, the factory employed about 1,200 workers when production began in 1939. After ceasing operations in 1998, the complex was designated a municipal historic site in 2001 and reopened in 2011 as the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
Taipei Sake Factory (Huashan 1914 Creative Park)
台北酒工場（専売局台北酒工場）
Established in 1914 as a private sake brewery by Nihon Hōjō Kabushiki Kaisha, the Taipei Sake Factory was taken over by the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau in 1922 and became one of the largest alcohol production facilities in colonial Taiwan. During WWII, the factory produced industrial alcohol for military use alongside sake and wines. After the war, it continued as a state-run winery until 1987. Now preserved as Huashan 1914 Creative Park, it is one of Taipei's most important cultural heritage sites and creative venues.
Taiwan Wartime Alcohol Fuel Factories
台湾酒精工場（航空燃料用無水酒精製造施設）
A network of alcohol production facilities across colonial Taiwan operated under the Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau, converted during WWII to produce anhydrous ethanol as a substitute for petroleum-based aviation fuel. Sugarcane molasses and sweet potatoes were fermented and distilled into high-purity ethanol, forming a critical component of Japan's wartime fuel self-sufficiency strategy as Allied naval blockades severed petroleum imports. Major facilities included the Banzitian anhydrous alcohol plant in present-day Tainan, the Taichung Alcohol Factory, and facilities at Houli and Huatan.
Taiwan Governor-General Taipei Industrial School
台湾総督府台北工業学校
Colonial-era industrial school established in 1912 by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office in Taipei's Da'an District, now the campus of National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech). As Taiwan's first industrial education institution, it trained technicians and industrial workers essential to the colony's modernization. During WWII, students were mobilized to work in military factories supporting Japan's war effort. The 1926 Red Building (紅樓) survives as a designated municipal historic site.
Basianshan Forest Station
八仙山林場
One of Taiwan's Three Great Forest Areas (三大林場) during the Japanese colonial period, alongside Alishan and Taipingshan. Operated from 1915 to 1963 in Heping District, Taichung, the station extracted massive quantities of valuable Taiwanese cypress (hinoki) and camphor timber through an extensive 99-kilometer railway network. During WWII, operations were taken over by the Taiwan Development Corporation (台灣拓殖株式會社) and timber output peaked at 43,000 cubic meters in 1943 to meet wartime military and industrial demands. Now preserved as the Basianshan National Forest Recreation Area.
Taipingshan Forest Station
太平山林場
One of Taiwan's "Three Great Forest Areas" (三大林場) during the Japanese colonial period, Taipingshan Forest Station in Yilan County operated from 1914 to 1982, producing approximately 990,000 cubic meters of timber. The station pioneered aerial cableway logging technology in Taiwan and built an extensive 68-kilometer forest railway network. During wartime, it supplied critical timber resources for military and industrial construction across the Japanese Empire.
Jingtong Station & Shidi Coal Mine
菁桐駅・石底炭鉱
Terminal station of the Pingxi Line, a narrow-gauge coal mining railway in northeast Taiwan built during the Japanese colonial period. Jingtong Station was constructed in 1929 to serve the Shidi Coal Mine (石底炭鉱), one of Taiwan's most productive coal mining operations. The original wooden station building, one of the few surviving Japanese-era railway stations in Taiwan, was designated a monument (古蹟) in 2003. Coal extracted from these mines was a critical wartime energy resource for the Japanese Empire.
Shengxing Station & Old Mountain Line Railway
勝興駅・旧山線鉄道（十六份驛）
The highest point (402.326m elevation) on the original Taiwan trunk railway mountain line, opened in 1907 during the Japanese colonial period. This wooden station in Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, served as strategic railway infrastructure connecting north and south Taiwan. The Old Mountain Line, completed in 1908, was an engineering marvel featuring nine tunnels, three bridges, and the steepest gradients on the western trunk line. Regular service ceased in 1998 when a new route opened; the station is now a designated historic site and popular heritage tourism destination.
Former Mitsui & Co. Taipei Branch
三井物産株式会社台北支店
The former Taipei branch of Mitsui & Co. (三井物産), Japan's largest trading conglomerate (zaibatsu), built from 1920, completed in 1922 and located at No. 54 Guanqian Road in Taipei's Zhongzheng District. Credited to Hirano Yūzō and Nomura Ichirō and built in the Tatsuno-style Renaissance Revival manner, the three-story building served as the headquarters for Mitsui's extensive colonial trading, banking, and insurance operations in Taiwan. Mitsui & Co. was instrumental in exporting Taiwan's key commodities — tea, rice, sugar, camphor, salt, and tobacco — while investing across virtually all sectors of the colonial economy. Originally situated in Dadaocheng along the Tamsui River, Mitsui relocated to the prestigious Honmachi (本町) commercial district as Taipei's economic center shifted. Its present simplified modernist form dates either from a 1940 rebuilding or, according to other research, from a 1946–1947 reconstruction by architect Lu Shu-sen after Allied bomb damage in 1945. After the war it served as the Veterans Affairs Council headquarters (until 1988), then housed Taiwan Land Bank offices, and later the Supreme Prosecutors' Special Investigation Division. Designated a Taipei City Municipal Historic Site in 1998, the building is currently owned by Taiwan Land Bank and remains closed to the public.
Nippon Kangyo Bank Taipei Branch (Now Land Bank Exhibition Hall)
日本勧業銀行台北支店（現・国立台湾博物館土銀展示館）
The Taipei branch of the Nippon Kangyo Bank (日本勧業銀行), completed in 1933 during the Japanese colonial era, was a major financial institution managing agricultural and industrial loans critical to colonial Taiwan's economic development. Designed by the bank's own building section with a monumental colonnade and Mayan Revival ornament, and built by Obayashi-gumi, the building exemplified Japanese colonial ambitions to project permanence and modernity. After Taiwan's retrocession in 1945, the building became the headquarters of the Land Bank of Taiwan (臺灣土地銀行) until 1965. Designated a municipal heritage site in 1991, it was extensively restored and reopened in 2010 as the National Taiwan Museum Land Bank Exhibition Hall (國立臺灣博物館土銀展示館), now housing natural history exhibits including large-scale dinosaur fossils and a preserved historical bank vault.
Sun Moon Lake Second Hydroelectric Power Plant (Jugong Power Plant)
日月潭第二発電所（鉅工発電所）
The second hydroelectric power plant of the Sun Moon Lake system, completed in August 1937 in Shuili Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. Built by the Taiwan Electric Power Company during the Japanese colonial period, the 43.5 MW facility utilized tailwater from the first Sun Moon Lake plant through a 4,409-meter tunnel, generating approximately 150 million kWh annually to fuel Taiwan's wartime industrialization. The plant was severely damaged by Allied bombing in March 1945 but was rebuilt after the war and remains operational today.
Taiwan Cement Shoushan Quarry Site
台湾セメント高雄工場跡・寿山採石場
The Shoushan limestone quarry operated by Asano Cement (from 1913) and later Taiwan Cement Corporation (from 1946) on the slopes of Shoushan (Monkey Mountain) in Kaohsiung. Over nearly 80 years of industrial quarrying, vast quantities of coral reef limestone were extracted to feed Taiwan's first modern large-scale cement plant at the mountain's base. Mining ceased in 1992 when concession rights expired, and the scarred mountain has since been incorporated into Shoushan National Nature Park. The quarry site serves as a stark reminder of wartime and postwar industrial exploitation of Taiwan's natural landscapes.
Songshan Brick Kiln (Taiwan Renga Co. Matsuyama Factory)
松山煉瓦工場（台湾煉瓦株式会社松山工場）
A major brick kiln factory in the Songshan area of Taipei operated by Taiwan Renga Co. (台灣煉瓦株式會社), which was founded in 1913 and acquired the Songshan works in 1918. The factory produced TR-branded red bricks used in colonial-era construction across Taiwan, employing Hoffmann kilns (八卦窯) for continuous mass production. The Taiwan Renga Company, founded by Ushiroku Shintarō (後宮信太郎), was the dominant brick manufacturer during the Japanese colonial period, supplying building materials for government offices, railways, and infrastructure throughout the island.
Taiwan Shonenko Memorial
台湾少年工記念碑
A memorial monument in the War and Peace Memorial Park in Kaohsiung's Qijin District, unveiled in 2023, honoring the approximately 8,400 Taiwanese teenagers (少年工/Shonenko) who were recruited from late 1942 and sent from 1943 onward to work at the Koza Naval Arsenal in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, manufacturing Raiden interceptor fighter aircraft during World War II. The boys, aged 12 to 19, left Taiwan from the port of Kaohsiung and endured wartime labor far from home.
Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
北門井仔脚瓦盤塩田
Taiwan's oldest surviving salt field, established in 1818 during the Qing dynasty and operated under the Japanese colonial government's salt monopoly system from 1895 to 1945. During WWII, salt production here supported Japan's military and industrial needs. Now restored as a cultural heritage tourism site in Beimen District, Tainan.
Ruisan Coal Mine (Houtong)
瑞三鉱業（猴硐炭鉱）
A major coal mine operated by Ruisan Mining Company in the Houtong area of Ruifang District, New Taipei City. Ruisan was founded in 1934, when Li Jianxing leased workings previously run by the Mitsui-backed Keelung Coal Mining Company; its coal supplied wartime industry and transportation, and after the war it became the largest single coal producer in Taiwan. The site now serves as the Houtong Coal Mine Ecological Park.
Jiufen Gold Mine (Jiufen Old Street)
九份金鉱跡（九份老街）
Major gold mining town in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, that prospered during the Japanese colonial period. Mining rights were granted to Fujita-gumi (藤田組) in 1896, later passing to the Yan family's Taiyo Mining Company (台陽鉱業). Gold production peaked in the 1930s-40s, supporting Japan's wartime economy. The town's distinctive staircase streets, teahouses, and Shengping Theater survive from the mining era. The mines closed in 1971.
Chuhuangkeng Oil Mine
出磺坑油鉱
Taiwan's earliest petroleum extraction site, where a well hand-dug in 1861 is often described as Asia's first and the world's second oil well. During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the site was developed by Japanese oil companies using modern drilling technology to deepen wells and boost production. Annual crude output peaked in 1927 at about 22,830 kiloliters. Now preserved as a heritage site with the Taiwan Oil Field Exhibition Hall, it remains one of the world's oldest continuously operating oil and gas fields.
Xiluo Bridge
西螺大橋
A landmark bridge spanning the Zhuoshui River in Yunlin County, Taiwan. Designed by Japanese colonial engineers, with the contract let in December 1937 and work begun in 1938, construction was halted during WWII when Japan requisitioned steel materials for the war effort. Thirty piers and two abutments were completed during the Japanese period. The bridge was finally completed in 1953 with US aid, stretching 1,939 meters and hailed at the time as the longest bridge in the Far East.
Camphor Factory Ruins (Nanzhuang / Daxi)
樟脳工場跡（南庄・大渓）
Ruins and heritage sites associated with Taiwan's camphor industry in Nanzhuang (Miaoli County) and Daxi (Taoyuan). During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), Taiwan supplied roughly 80% of the world's camphor. The colonial government established a monopoly in 1899, with camphor bureaus in Miaoli and other mountain-adjacent prefectures. The industry's expansion into indigenous mountain territories was a primary driver of the "aboriginal pacification" (理蕃) policy, leading to violent conflicts such as the 1902 Nanzhuang Incident. Camphor was essential for manufacturing celluloid, smokeless gunpowder, and medicines, making Taiwan a strategically vital colony.
Kobe Air Raid Site
神戸大空襲跡
The site of devastating strategic bombing raids on Kobe, Japan's sixth-largest city and a major port and shipbuilding center. From January 1945 to the end of the war the Kobe area suffered some 128 air raids, large and small, with the two most destructive strikes on March 17 and June 5, 1945, collectively destroying 56% of the built-up area, killing about 7,500 civilians by the official count (over 8,000 by other estimates), and leaving more than 500,000 homeless.
Kawasaki Great Air Raid Site
川崎大空襲跡
Site of the devastating April 15, 1945 firebombing of Kawasaki, a critical Keihin Industrial Zone city. B-29 bombers dropped napalm incendiary bombs destroying 37% of the urban area (9.3 km²); the US Strategic Bombing Survey recorded 1,520 dead and 8,759 injured in Kawasaki's air raids, while the city's own reconstruction record gives 768 dead. Kawasaki was targeted for its concentration of war-essential heavy and chemical industries including NKK Steel (now JFE), Toshiba, and Nippon Oil facilities.
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.
Showa Denko Kawasaki Factory Ruins
昭和電工川崎工場跡
Site of the Showa Denko chemical and aluminium factory in the Keihin Industrial Zone of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Opened in 1931 as the Kawasaki plant of Showa Fertilizer (founded 1928), it became a major wartime producer of aluminium, chemical products, and military materiel after the 1939 merger that created Showa Denko K.K. The company later caused the Niigata Minamata disease (1965), Japan's second mercury poisoning disaster. The 1931 Art Deco main office building survives as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.
Taiwan Governor-General Tainan Higher Technical School
台湾総督府台南高等工業学校
The only higher engineering education institution in colonial Taiwan until 1943, established in 1931 in Tainan by the Taiwan Governor-General. The school trained engineers in mechanical, electrical, and applied chemistry fields to support Taiwan's industrial development. During WWII, students and facilities were mobilized for wartime production. Now the campus of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), one of Taiwan's top research universities.
Sagami Army Arsenal Ruins
相模陸軍造兵廠跡
Site of the Sagami Army Arsenal (1938–1945), one of the Imperial Japanese Army's major ordnance factories in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. The arsenal manufactured tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy weapons, employing up to 30,000 workers at its wartime peak. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the facility was seized by the U.S. Army and converted into the Sagami General Depot, which remains an active American military logistics base today.
Former Student Mobilization Factory Site (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nagoya)
旧学徒動員工場跡（名古屋三菱重工）
Site of the former Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagoya Aircraft Works and Engine Plant, where thousands of mobilized students (学徒動員) were conscripted to produce Zero fighters and aircraft engines from 1943 onward. On December 13, 1944, B-29 bombers killed over 300 workers including many student laborers. The Oe factory district in Minato Ward, Nagoya, now houses the Mitsubishi Oe Clock Tower Aviation History Museum, preserving the memory of wartime aircraft production and the student mobilization program that sent over 3.4 million Japanese students into military factories.
Busan Port (Kanpu Ferry Terminal)
釜山港（関釜連絡船発着地）
Busan Port was the Korean terminus of the Kanpu (関釜) Ferry route connecting Shimonoseki, Japan to colonial Korea. Opened in 1905, the ferry service became a critical artery of Japan's colonial empire, transporting troops, settlers, and — most notoriously — hundreds of thousands of forcibly mobilized Korean laborers to wartime Japan between 1939 and 1945. The port's piers (1st through 4th and central) were built between 1912 and 1943 to handle growing military and commercial traffic. The Konron Maru, a Kanpu ferry, was sunk by the USS Wahoo in October 1943 with 583 casualties. By June 1945, Allied mining of the Korea Strait and air raids effectively shut the route down. Today the site is a modern international ferry terminal, and the National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation stands in nearby Busan as a testament to the port's dark wartime legacy.
Sup'ung Dam (Suiho Dam)
水豊ダム
Completed in 1941 on the Yalu River at the China-Korea border, the Sup'ung Dam was the largest hydroelectric dam in Asia and the third largest in the world at the time of construction. Built by two Yalu River hydroelectric companies headed by Noguchi Shitagau of Nichitsu (Japan Nitrogen Fertilizer Company), with its output shared between Korea and Manchukuo, the dam represented one of the greatest engineering achievements of the Japanese Empire. With a planned output of 700,000 kW from seven generating units driven by 105,000 kW Francis turbines, the dam supplied electricity throughout the Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria. During the Korean War, its power station was bombed repeatedly by UN forces in 1952-1953. The dam remains operational today, jointly managed by China and North Korea, and is featured on North Korea's national emblem.
Hungnam Nitrogen Fertilizer Factory (Chosen Nitrogen Fertiliser Complex)
興南窒素肥料工場
A massive chemical-industrial complex built by Japan Nitrogenous Fertilizer Company (Nichitsu/Chisso) in Hungnam, colonial Korea, beginning in 1927. At its peak it employed 45,000 workers across a 19.8-million-square-meter site, producing ammonium sulfate (world's third-largest capacity at 500,000 tons/year), explosives, synthetic fuels, and other chemicals for Japan's war effort. Powered by 12 hydroelectric stations generating 870,000 kW — including the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir system — the complex ranked among the largest chemical-industrial complexes in the Japanese empire.
Incheon Port (Jinsen)
仁川港
Incheon Port was the principal colonial trade gateway to Seoul during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945). Opened as a treaty port in 1883, it witnessed Japan's military landings during the Sino-Japanese War (1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904), and was developed into a major hub for heavy industry and munitions production during WWII. The Open Port Area in Jung-gu retains significant Japanese colonial-era architecture, including former bank buildings and the Nippon Yusen shipping office.
Nippon Steel Kenjiho Steelworks (Songnim)
日本製鐵兼二浦製鐵所
One of the largest integrated steelworks in colonial Korea, originally built by Mitsubishi Steel in 1918 in Kenjiho (present-day Songnim, North Korea). Absorbed into Nippon Steel in 1934, the plant operated three blast furnaces producing 350,000 tons of pig iron annually. It supplied structural steel, shipbuilding plate, and low-phosphorus pig iron to the Imperial Japanese Navy, including Kure Naval Arsenal. Operations ceased on August 27, 1945.
Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps Memorial (Gwangju)
朝鮮女子勤労挺身隊関連跡（光州）
Memorial and documentation site in Gwangju, South Korea, commemorating the Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps (朝鮮女子勤労挺身隊). In 1944–45, young Korean girls — some in their early teens — were recruited through schools and local officials in the Gwangju and South Jeolla region to work in Japanese munitions factories, most notably the Mitsubishi aircraft works in Nagoya; survivors say the promised wages and schooling never materialised. A Statue of Peace (平和の少女像) stands near Gwangju City Hall, and the Gwangju-based Citizens' Group with the Women's Volunteer Labor Corps Grandmothers (근로정신대 할머니와 함께하는 시민모임), founded in 2009, continues to advocate for the victims' recognition and reparations.
Mukden POW Camp (Hoten Camp)
奉天捕虜収容所（奉天俘虜収容所）
A major Japanese prisoner-of-war camp near Mukden (present-day Shenyang), Manchuria, operational from November 1942 to August 1945. The camp held approximately 2,000 Allied POWs in the main camp and its branch camps — including survivors of the Bataan Death March and, at a branch camp, senior commanders such as General Jonathan Wainwright — who were subjected to forced labor in Manchurian factories, starvation rations, brutal cold, and covert medical experiments linked to Unit 731. It is now the Shenyang WWII Allied POW Camp Site Museum, regarded as one of the most representative surviving Japanese POW camp sites.
South Manchuria Railway Company Headquarters (Dalian)
南満洲鉄道株式会社本社
The headquarters of the South Manchuria Railway Company (満鉄/Mantetsu) in Dalian, the most powerful Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria. Established in 1906 and relocated to Dalian in 1907, Mantetsu was a semi-governmental conglomerate that controlled railways, coal mines, ports, hotels, hospitals, schools, and research institutes across Manchuria — effectively a state within a state. The building, originally a Russian-era commercial school, still stands in downtown Dalian as the offices of China Railway Shenyang Group Dalian Branch.
Showa Steel Works (Anshan Iron & Steel Works)
昭和製鋼所（鞍山製鉄所）
The largest steel works in Manchuria, operated by Showa Steel Works (昭和製鋼所), a subsidiary of the South Manchuria Railway and from 1938 of the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, in Anshan, Liaoning. By 1942 its annual capacity reached 3,600,000 tonnes, producing approximately 15% of pig iron and 6% of rolled steel across all Japanese-held territory. It was a primary strategic target of USAAF B-29 bombing raids from mid-1944, with reported losses of up to 30% of capacity, although Japanese accounts describe direct damage to the plant as limited. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the facility was dismantled by the Soviet Army; it was later rebuilt as the Anshan Iron & Steel Company (鞍鋼集團).
Fushun Coal Mine
撫順炭鉱
One of the world's largest open-pit coal mines, located in Fushun, Liaoning Province, Manchuria. Seized by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) from 1907, the mine became the financial backbone of Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria, producing up to 75% of total Manchurian coal output by 1930. During WWII, the mine relied heavily on Chinese and Korean forced laborers under brutal conditions, and a catastrophic dust explosion in 1917 killed 917 workers. The West Open Pit, measuring 6.6 km long, 2.0 km wide, and over 300 m deep, was the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia.
South Manchuria Railway Dalian Yamato Hotel
満鉄大連ヤマトホテル
The flagship Yamato Hotel in Dalian (Dairen), built by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) and opened on August 1, 1914. Attributed to Mantetsu architect Ota Takeshi and built in Renaissance style with Ionic giant-order granite columns, the four-story steel-framed brick building with 115 rooms served as the premier luxury hotel in Manchuria, hosting Japanese officials, foreign dignitaries, and international travelers transiting between Europe and Asia. It was the equivalent of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore or the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the Soviet Red Army briefly used it as a garrison command post before it was transferred to Chinese authorities. Renamed Dalian Hotel (大连宾馆) in 1956, the building is now a nationally protected cultural heritage site on Zhongshan Square in central Dalian.
Port of Dalian (Dairen)
大連港
The largest commercial port in Manchuria during Japanese rule (1905–1945), operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company. Originally developed by Russia as the port of Dalny from 1899, it was expanded by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War into a major hub for exporting Manchurian resources—coal, steel, and soybeans—to the Japanese home islands. By 1932, approximately 75% of all Manchukuo trade flowed through Dalian. The port also served as the primary gateway for Japanese settlers entering Manchuria and the departure point for repatriation after 1945.
Yalu River Broken Bridge
鴨緑江断橋
A truncated railway bridge in Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, originally constructed by the Empire of Japan in 1911 to connect Manchuria with Korea across the Yalu River. The bridge was part of the strategic rail network linking the Korean port of Busan all the way to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the Korean War, United States Air Force B-29 bombers destroyed the North Korean spans in November 1950 and February 1951. The surviving four spans on the Chinese side were preserved in 1993 as a war memorial and national historical site, serving as a stark reminder of the conflicts that shaped Northeast Asia in the twentieth century.
Uji Army Gunpowder Factory Remains (Uji Garrison)
宇治火薬製造所跡（宇治駐屯地）
A former army explosives factory that continued production through 1945. Part of its extensive grounds is now Uji Garrison, where an altered nineteenth-century brick water tower survives; access is controlled.
Kori Army Ammunition Factory Site (Myokenyama Chimney)
香里製造所跡（妙見山の煙突）
A surviving boiler chimney marks the former Kori ammunition factory in Hirakata. The works dried propellant delivered from Uji and filled shells and bombs; the chimney now stands within a working water facility with limited public openings.
Former Tokyo First Army Arsenal Headquarters (Chuo Park Cultural Center)
旧東京第一陸軍造兵廠本部事務所（中央公園文化センター）
The former arsenal headquarters survives in Tokyo's Jujo district as a public cultural center. Built in 1930, it connects the area's wartime arms industry with its later use by U.S. forces and conversion to civic facilities.
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.
Kawagoe Army Arsenal Site (Fukuoka Ammunition Factory)
東京第一陸軍造兵廠川越製造所跡（福岡工場・火工廠）
The former ammunition works in present-day Fujimino operated from 1937 to 1945, producing cartridges, fuzes and other munitions components. Its grounds now contain civic buildings, housing, schools and factories; the marker represents the former site around city hall.
Mitsui Tamano Shipyard (Former Tama Shipyard)
三井造船玉野造船所（旧玉造船所）
A shipbuilding centre founded in 1917 that produced naval vessels and wartime standard merchant ships. Parts of the waterfront remain in industrial use, including modern shipbuilding; unrestricted public entry is not established.
Namura Osaka Shipyard Remains (Creative Center Osaka)
名村造船所大阪工場跡地（クリエイティブセンター大阪）
A former shipyard on the Kizu River that built wartime standard merchant ships. Its surviving industrial spaces now host Creative Center Osaka; access is through scheduled tours or events, with no ordinary free entry.
Seki Underground Factory of Suzuka Naval Arsenal
鈴鹿海軍工廠関防空工場跡（関地下工場）
Sealed tunnel entrances in Kannon-yama recall an underground dispersal factory producing aircraft machine-gun ammunition in 1945. The surrounding park is accessible, but ordinary visits are limited to exterior viewing.
Asakawa Underground Aircraft Engine Factory
浅川地下壕（中島飛行機地下工場）
Wartime tunnels beneath the hills near Takao housed a dispersed Nakajima aircraft-engine factory. Part of the surviving I district can be visited through advance-booked preservation-group tours.