A place with remnants of war

Hiroshima was heavily damaged by the atomic bomb. There are places in Japan where war ruins remain, and they were also scattered throughout Hiroshima prefecture.

Today, like the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park, it serves as a place to look back on the tragic past and appeal for peace.
Among them, Kure City has a lot of valuable heritage sites, and it has been certified by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as a “Japan Heritage Site”.

In addition, the first Holocaust Education Center in Japan was opened in Fukuyama City on the 50th anniversary of the postwar era, throwing the importance of thinking about true peace without discrimination and prejudice.

It is a museum that introduces the history of Kure, which continued to be at the forefront of Japanese industrial technology since the Meiji period, and the science and technology of shipbuilding, steelmaking, aircraft, etc., which became the foundation of it, while touching on the life and culture of that time. The battleship “Yamato” built at the Kure Navy Arsenal is reproduced in 1/10. Actual large-scale materials such as the Zero type fighter jet and the human torpedo “Kaiten” are also on display. The misery of war and the importance of peace read from real materials should be deeply etched in the hearts of those who see it.

The Irifuneyama Memorial Museum was established in 1889 by the Meiji government, which was aiming for a modern nation with Fukoku Kyohei.

A two-story Western-style building was built on Mt. Irifune. After it was destroyed by the 1905 Geiyo Earthquake, it was rebuilt into the current Japanese-Western style one-story house. The interior has the beauty of gorgeous gold karakami paper, and it is designated as an important cultural property of the country.

It is a tower clock installed on the roof of the former Naval Arsenal Building Department in 1921. The 10-meter-high tower clock, which ticked time with the factory until the end of the war, is said to be the oldest in Japan as an electric parent-child impulse clock that is still in operation, and is designated as a municipal tangible cultural property.

“Brick Warehouse” was built in 1897 in the area where the Kure Navy Arsenal was once a top secret area. It was used as a product store and cannon depot, and after the war it was converted as a warehouse for private companies.

The large roof of the dock where the battleship “Yamato” was built still remains. At that time, the construction of the largest battleship in the world was a military secret, and it was built with this large roof dock so that it could not be seen from the surroundings. Coir ropes were hung around the building instead of curtains, and even the Kure citizens living in the vicinity did not know what they were making inside.

The dam was completed in 1918 as a reservoir for the Former Official Residence of Commander-in-Chief of the Kure Naval Station’s water supply.

It is a gravity-type concrete structure with a length of 97 meters, a height of 25 meters, and a total water storage capacity of 1960,000 m3, and boasted the largest scale in the East when it was completed.

It is designated as an important cultural property of the country. (* Because it is a water supply facility that is still in operation, it is usually not possible to visit the premises.)