Showing posts with label Kaiten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kaiten. Show all posts

Wednesday 20 March 2019

Ozushima : Kaiten's Last Sanctuary





Kaiten Type 1 replica, Kaiten Memorial Museum.



Towards the last years of the Pacific War, with its once powerful Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) close to total annihilation and its maritime supply lines strangled by the unrestricted submarine warfare waged by the US Navy, the Japanese high command resorted to the deployment of various types of suicide weapons in a desperate but futile attempt to reverse the fortunes of war. One of those so called special attack weapons was the Kaiten, also known as the human torpedo, the underwater equivalent of the Kamikaze.

Despite the high human cost, the Kaiten only achieved limited success throughout its short operational history and was largely forgotten after the War. Of the several hundred operational as well as prototype Kaitens produced, only a handful were ever preserved and displayed in museums in Japan and the United States. Fortunately, at least two former Kaiten training bases at Ozushima and Oga escaped the fate of demolition and are today heritage sites where visitors can learn about the tragic history of those special attack units. Between them Ozushima is better known for its Kaiten Memorial Museum and the ruins of the torpedo launching facility.

I visited Ozushima on a cold rainy winter's day on 7th December 2018* and discovered a quiet and desolate island with hills overlooking the surrounding Seto Inland Sea. A somber and sad place befitting to be the last sanctuary of the Kaiten .....


Kaiten In A Nutshell



The Kaiten was essentially a suicide submarine created by modifying a heavy weight torpedo, inserting a compartment to accommodate a human operator to the mid-section and enlarging the warhead. Several could be carried onboard a mothership, usually a fleet type submarine, and they would be launched when a worthwhile enemy vessel was within range. The Kaiten operator would steer his suicide craft underwater towards the target and pop up to periscope depth for a mid-course correction before the final high speed intercept run. It was the brainchild of two naval lieutenants Kuroki Hiroshi and Nishina Sekio.

Kaiten ( 回天 ) literally meant return to the sky or return to heaven but its original meaning in Japanese as envisaged by Kuroki pertained to the reversal of the will of heaven and regaining the edge on the battle front. It was Vice Admiral Omori Sentaro, then director of the Special Attack Division, who named the weapon after the Kaiten Maru回天丸 ), a steam-powered warship which once served in the navy of the Tokugawa shogunate in the final years of the Edo period. The project was top secret and was given the code name Maru Roku Kanamono ( ㊅金物 ), which roughly translates to zero six hardware.

Key to the construction of the Kaiten was the Type 93 ship launched high-speed wakeless torpedo which used compressed oxygen ( instead of air ) as its propellent. Known as the Sanso Gyorai ( 酸素魚雷 oxygen torpedo ) and nicknamed the Long Lance torpedo by western media, it had a high explosive warhead weighing 490kg and was the most advanced torpedo of its time.

Conceptualized as a special attack weapon in late 1943 and approved for trial production by the naval high command in Feb 1944, Kaiten prototypes were quickly tested and readied for mass production by July 1944. That same month special Kaiten base units were also setup and the first Kaiten training base at Ozushima was operational by 1st September. More training bases were subsequently built all over the coastal areas of the Seto Inland Sea and also around Kyushu Island.

The first combat operations took place in Nov 1944 where Kaiten units of the Kikusui strike group successfully sunk the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa at Ulithi Harbour, Caroline Islands. The only other successes were the sinking of an infantry landing craft in Jan 1945 by the Kongo group and the destroyer escort USS Underhill in July 1945 by the Tamon group.

Of all the Kaiten variants, only the Type 1 saw combat operations. Type 2,4,5,6 and 10 only existed as prototypes and were never used operationally. The Type 10 was developed with coastal defense in mind and was the only variant based on the lighter Type 92 torpedo.

In Japanese, the term ningen gyorai ( 人間魚雷 ) or human torpedo, is synonymous with the Kaiten special attack weapon. In fact they are frequently combined like an adjective before a noun - the human torpedo Kaiten ( 人間魚雷回天 ).





Kaiten ( Maru Roku Kanamono Type 1 )
Displacement 8.3 tons Length 14.75m Speed 30 knots
Engine Power 550hp Warhead 1.55 tons
Source:  Kaiten Museum






Where In The World Is Ozushima?



Ozushima ( 大津島 ) is a Y-shaped island lying approximately 10km off the coast of Shunan City in Yamaguchi Prefecture of Japan. Granite extraction and export used to be the main industrial activity providing sustenance to the island. Endowed with sheltered bays which form natural ports and surrounded by shallow seas, it was here that the Imperial Japanese Navy chose to set up its torpedo testing facilities in 1937 and subsequently the first Kaiten training base in 1944. The base infrastructure included command buildings, living quarters, mess hall and kitchen, guard houses, clinic and sickbay, maintenance workshops, storage areas, seaplane hangars, gun placements and bunkers. Several of these military structures including the torpedo testing pier and the hilltop torpedo observation post survived to this day, though in various degrees of dilapidation. In the post-war years a Kaiten monument was erected on a hill overlooking the former base. The Kaiten Memorial Museum was later built adjacent to the monument. It has a collection of more than a thousand artifacts relating to the Kaiten. Today, with the demise of its granite industry and a greying and declining population**, Ozushima markets itself as Kaiten Island, with the hope to lure in tourists keen to discover the obscure history of the Human Torpedo.


Ozushima and Shunan City



Ozushima Kaiten Base. Existing relics 1 Kaiten Museum 2 Stairs of Hell
3 Torpedo Ignition Test Site 4 Hazardous Material Storage
5 Transformer Station 6 Seaplane maintenance area entrance
7 Torpedo observation station 8 Tunnel 9 Torpedo Launching Facility.


Tokuyama Ferry Terminal : Gateway to Ozushima



To get to Ozushima, you will have to find your way to the Tokuyama Ferry Terminal in Shunan City which fortunately is within walking distance from Tokuyama Station, accessible by the Shinkansen bullet train. Return tickets cost ¥710 ( US$6 ) and it takes about 18 minutes to reach the island by the fast ferry.

The ferry terminal is difficult to miss as there is a replica of the Kaiten prominently displayed at the entrance to the parking area. This life sized replica was used to film the Kaiten movie Deguchi no nai umi or The Sea Without Exit in 2006. It looked and felt like the real thing, black, metallic and menacing, complete with the emblem of the Kikusui strike group on both sides of the flow deflector next to the periscope. I could have been fooled if not for the information inscription in front of the Kaiten.

However, instead of just placing the replica next to an ugly old building by the road side in a restrictively narrow area, the Kaiten could have been better displayed on its own perhaps in a small park next to the ferry terminal.


Kaiten Type 1 life-sized replica, Tokuyama Port, Yamaguchi. 


Kaiten replica with Toyoko Inn Tokuyama
and Shinkansen Station in the background.


Inscription explaining the origins and purpose of the Kaiten replica.
 It was used in the 2006 movie Sea Without Exit.



Kaiten Island



The moment you set foot on Ozushima, you would notice that it is extremely quiet with hardly a soul in sight. The single asphalt road that leads away from the pier is almost devoid of vehicular traffic. There is no bus or taxi service on this small island. A huge sign proclaims Ozushima the Island of Kaiten ( 回天の島 kaiten no shima ) and a map at the bottom lists the various points of interest on the island.



Ozushima from the ferry pier.
The building with the green roof marks the site of the former Kaiten base.



Sign reads Welcome to Otsushima - Kaiten Island



Just by the roadside near the Kaiten Island sign is a small monument with the statue of the Buddist goddess Kannon ( 観音 ) and the words Kaiten memorial ( 回天供養 kaiten kuyo ). A small donation box is prominently placed directly in front of the goddess statue. Fresh chrysanthemum flowers adorning the monument indicates regular upkeep by the islanders. I am guessing that Kannon, being the Goddess of Mercy and also being regarded by the people of coastal East Asia as Goddess of the Sea, the protector of fishermen and sailors, must have been the patron saint of the Kaiten operators, perhaps even the entire Japanese Navy.



The roadside Kaiten memorial with the statue of the sea goddess Kannon.


Behind the statue of the goddess and carved into the stone wall are the lyrics of two songs commemorating the Kaiten and the deeds of its operators, " Mother of Kaiten - Human Torpedo " by composer and singer Utagawa Fumiko ( 回天の母~人間魚雷~ ) and " Peace Kannon Folk Song " by Aoyama Rumi ( 平和観音音頭 ). The lyrics of Utagawa's song is also found on the polished stone slab erected beside the Kannon statue.


Lyrics of Utagawa Fumiko's Mother of Kaiten - Human Torpedo
 is found on this stone slab and on the wall behind it.



Lyrics of the Peace Kannon folk song by Aoyama Rumi
on the wall behind the Kannon statue.



I follow the signs and head towards the Kaiten Memorial Museum which should be less than a kilometer from the ferry pier. The path goes past the Ozushima Fureai Center, a campground of sorts but it is understandably empty at this time of the year. It then goes behind a couple of school buildings which are also quiet and unoccupied. A large empty grassy field can be seen beyond the school compound. I will soon learn from a signboard by the path that this is the actual site of the former Ozushima Kaiten Training Base. A long concrete high wall which separates the footpath from the site of the former base still stands to this day. It served to prevent Ozushima islanders from observing the activities on the base when they are walking past the area during the war years.



Ozushima Elementary School was built at the site of the former Kaiten base
 after the War. In its last year of operation in 2015, the school had
only 1 student, 3 teachers and 1 staff member.




This structure beside the main school building is probably the
assembly hall. The field where the torpedo maintenance shed
once stood can be seen in the background.


This school field was the site of the main kaiten base.

 
The partially sealed hazardous material storage area is seen built into the cliff side.
The small structure to the right of the school hall is the old transformer station.



Signboard compares former and current structures where the kaiten base once stood.




Passageway lined with sakura trees leading to Kaiten Museum.
The atmosphere will be very different by late March and early April.

The footpath then becomes steep and ends up at the top of a low hill where the Kaiten Memorial Museum is located. Two granite columns mark the entrance to the long passageway leading to the museum. On both sides of the pavement are two neat rows of stones bearing the names of the deceased Kaiten operators.

A large bronze bell with a long striker can be seen hanging from a shelter in front of the museum building. This the Bell of Peace Prayer ( 平和祈念の鐘 Heiwa Kinen no Kane ). A plaque on the outward facing side of the pillar proclaims it was constructed in 1974 with donations from the Lions Club of Tokuyama. Another plaque on the inward side directly facing the bell bears even more interesting information, all in Japanese only, as usual. It states that the material used to cast the bell included about 100kg of gunmetal ( 砲金 hokin ) from the cartridge cases ( 薬莢 yakkyo ) salvaged from the number 3 turret ( 三番砲塔 sanban hoto ) of the IJN battleship Mutsu ( 陸奥 ). The Mutsu sunk with the loss of 1121 lives after suffering a mysterious internal explosion in the very same turret while moored at the Hashirajima fleet anchorage in June 1943. The anchorage lies within the Inland Sea about 60km east of the Kaiten museum as the crow flies. The bell has a diameter of 90cm, weighs 850kg and is crafted after the famous Uji Byodoin Bell of Kyoto, with embossed designs of celestial figures, lions and Chinese-styled words. On 15th August every year, the anniversary of Japan's surrender during World War II, the bell would be struck by visitors with the hope that the sounds would bring peace to the world and appeasement to the lost souls in the southern seas.



Bell of Peace Prayer with Kaiten monument and Kaiten replica
 in background and ginko leaves.



100kg of gunmetal : The link with Battleship Mutsu



The Kaiten Monument



Behind the Bell of Peace Prayer lies the Kaiten Monument, a monolithic greyish granite structure of about 2 meters in height with an altar in front of it and flanked on both sides by stone slabs carved full with words. The plaque on the left lists the submarines lost or sunk during Kaiten operations giving details such as vessel name, operating base, departure date, wreckage site, captain's name and numbers of sailors who perished with the submarine. For example the last entry read : I-165 Submarine, departed Hikari Base 15th June 1945, lost east of the Marianas, captain Ono Yasushi with 104 crew members. Of the 32 submarines involved in Kaiten operations, 8 were lost. The plaque on the right bears the names of all the Kaiten operators who had lost their lives during training or actual combat.


Kaiten Monument


Kaiten Monument overlooking the Seto Inland Sea.


List of submarines and submariners lost during Kaiten operations 
 

List of 145 Kaiten operators and maintenance personnel
 killed during operations or training.


The location of the monument is almost at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Shin Ozushima Ferry Terminal, its breakwaters and the Seto Inland Sea beyond. By this time of the year the trees have mostly shed their leaves leaving bare branches pointing forlornly skywards. The cloudy and rainy weather helps make an already bleak atmosphere even more depressing. I wonder if this despondent feeling was how the Kaiten operators felt before their final departure from Ozushima.


View of the bleak Inland Sea and leafless sakura tree
on a cold winter's day from behind the Kaiten Monument.




Kaiten Type 1 Replica



A life-sized Kaiten Type 1 replica can be seen next to the Kaiten Monument in front of the museum building. Just like the replica at Tokushima Ferry Terminal, it features the emblem of the Kikusui strike group on its flow deflectors. The fact that the Kaiten Museum does not even have a real Kaiten specimen and has to rely on a replica for display is telling of the very small numbers that were preserved after the War. Then the priority was the de-establishment of the armed services, disarming, demobilization and repatriation. Probably very little thought or room was left for the preservation of war relics and anything that could be scrapped would be scrapped. After all, much raw materials were required for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a war torn nation. By the time the Japanese society has again prospered and the trauma of war has somewhat faded to the extend that the general populace can embrace the idea of commemorating the war dead, most of the artifacts are already lost or forgotten.

As far as I am aware, the only complete Kaiten specimens in Japan can be found in the Yushukan War Museum of the Yasukuni Shrine ( Type 1 ) and the Kure Maritime Museum a.k.a. Yamato Museum (  Type 10 ). In addition, Yushukan has the hull of a Type 4 and the History and Folklore Museum of Yamaguchi has the hull of a Type 2.



Kaiten replica and sakura tree next to monument



Kaiten replica with museum courtyard behind




Kaiten replica with museum behind


The Kaiten Memorial Museum



The idea of a memorial museum was first mooted in 1962 during a kaiten interest group meet in Tokyo. The intended purpose of the museum was to collect, preserve and display artifacts belonging to the deceased kaiten operators. Funding campaign for the construction of the museum began in 1965 and a total of 19.62 million yen was collected. The museum opened its doors in Nov 1968.

Among its collections were more than a thousand items including letters, last wills, photographs and uniforms. One of the most remarkable exhibit was a replica of Kuroki and Higuchi's last testament written on the inner wall of their sunken kaiten before they died of asphyxiation from oxygen depletion. It was a routine training mission on the evening of 6th Sep 1944 that went terribly wrong with the Kaiten stuck in the muddy seabed after an unexpected dive. Trapped under 18 meters of water without much hope of being rescued, the two officers were giving a detailed account of what went wrong and were even suggesting improvements for subsequent models. The sunken kaiten was only located the next day by which time both officers were dead. Kuroki was four days from his 23rd birthday.


Replica of Kuroki and Higuchi's last testament.
Source : Kaiten Memorial Museum


After 30 years in operation, the museum underwent a major renovation in 1998 at a cost of 47.33 million yen. A section of the Kaiten hull used to film the 2006 Kaiten movie Deguchi no nai Umi is displayed in front of a wall full of photographs of deceased Kaiten pilots. Because the museum has a no photography policy, I did not take any photographs when I was inside the museum.

The normal entrance fee is JPY300 ( about US$3 ) for adults but the museum will waive admission fee on two occasions every year. The 15th of August is the anniversary of the surrender of Japan during WWII and on this day visitors will strike the Bell of Peace in the museum's courtyard. Also on the second Sunday of  every November where a memorial ceremony is held in front of the Kaiten Monument. In recent years the number of visitors to the museum hover between 12000 to 16000 annually.



Admission ticket to Kaiten Museum dated 2018 Dec 7th.



Kaiten Tunnels And Launching Pier



Apart from the Kaiten Memorial Museum, the other major attractions of Ozushima are the ruins of the torpedo testing and kaiten launching pier as well as the tunnels that connect it to the main base.

By 1937, weapons engineers producing the Type 93 Long Lance torpedo at the Kure Arsenal had wanted better test facilities to replace the existing one at Dainyu. Ozushima was selected because it could provide a wider and longer test range. The pier to launch the torpedoes was made of steel reinforced concrete and was completed in 1939 at a cost of 830000 yen. It has 2 levels with cranes and 2 launch bays. Construction of its foundations required the use of 8 caissons and another 5 for the foundations of the passageway. The main structure has a height of 10m, length of 12m, width of 7.5m and a draft of 7.5m. Its estimated weight was 700 tons. Before the tunnels were built, portions of the coastal cliffs were hacked away to build a path over rocky outcrops so that the torpedoes could be hauled to the pier from the maintenance workshops. Construction of the tunnels with rail tracks made the transfer much easier.

The tunnel measure about 250 meters and the entrance is not far from the Ozushima Elementary School. At present the rail tracks have been paved over and even the walls of the tunnel looks coated very neatly with fresh concrete. At the mid-point the tunnel widens and has a side opening to the sea where the Kaiten launching pier could be seen not far away. This section of the tunnel also has old photographs of the Kaiten and its operators and audio explanations of the Kaiten's history. The tunnel ends in front of the Kaiten launching pier and a concrete connecting path brings the visitor to the pier.



The tunnel entrance.



Rail tracks are paved over. Wall have been replastered.


Side opening to the sea


Seaward view of tunnel side opening


Mid-portion of tunnel with photo gallery



Tunnel exit and link way to the Torpedo Launching Pier.


The Kaiten base at Ozushima was officially opened on 1st Sep 1944 and training commenced just 4 days later. The torpedo launching pier was then used to launch Kaitens for their training practice in the sea. The internal torpedo launching bays within the structure were designed to accommodate the Type 93 torpedo with a diameter of 61cm. They were too narrow to launch the kaiten which had a diameter of 1 meter. Instead, the kaitens were hoisted into the water from the side of the concrete pier by cranes. The rusted remnants of such a crane can still be seen at the edge of the pier to this day. Note that embarkation for combat operations do not take place at this pier. Instead, other piers over at the main base were used.

Currently, the torpedo launching bays and the upper level of the pier are out of bounds and fenced up. A signboard explains about the Type 93 torpedo. A granite marker stands near the beginning of the link way to the pier and proclaims it the ruins of the torpedo launch site.

Because it is the only surviving structure for Kaiten training built during World War II in the whole of Japan, it is deemed a war heritage and it was conferred the Heritage Award by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers ( JSCE ) in 2006. Here is the JSCE explanatory note to its selection in Japanese.




Sign at exit of tunnel proclaims the area
the Torpedo Launching Facility Relic


The Type 93 Torpedo Launching Facility and Kaiten Training Relic


The two storey concrete structure with two launch bays behind the fence.




Signboard explains the origins of the torpedo test site





These bays are for launching the 610mm Type 93 torpedoes.
The Kaiten has a 1000mm diameter and would not fit.




Remnants of the foundation of the Kaiten hoist at the side of the pier



Torpedo Observation Station



On a hilltop overlooking the sea to the west lies the ruins of the torpedo observation post ( 魚雷見張所 gyorai miharisho  ). A fairly strenuous climb through a bamboo forest is required before reaching this site. It is a single storey building by the cliff with large windows to observe torpedo firing during the War. All its windows are now gone and only the window frames remained. The walls are bare and a few wires dangle from the ceilings, with the electric devices they power long gone. This ruin is generally quite free from graffiti and relatively clean.


Signboard explains about the torpedo observation station




Rear view of the dilapidated building 



The building has a commanding view of the surrounding seas




Bare, doorless and windowless but still standing after 8 decades.



An anti-aircraft gun placement site is located to the north of the museum but I did not have time to explore. It was supposed to have consisted of a 150cm search light, one single barreled 13mm anti-aircraft gun and 3 twin-barreled 12.7mm guns to provide the Kaiten base with some protection against air attack. It will have to wait for another visit to the island in the future.





I-58 with Kaiten Human Torpedoes on deck.
Box art from Tamiya.

The Legacy



The Human Torpedo Kaiten was a suicide weapon system unlike any other and unique to the Imperial Japanese Navy. It never quite achieved the success and notoriety of its aerial counterpart, the Kamikaze Special Attack. The only reason that it did not result in more deaths apart from the several hundred operators and submariners who died during combat operations was because the end of the War came swiftly. All Kaiten operations ceased by 15th Aug 1945 with the unconditioned surrender of Japan. Though they did not manage to turn the tide of war and save their country, the sacrifices of these young men may not have been entirely in vain so long as the message of peace is passed on to the future generations.

Today, 75 years on, the world might have forgotten about the Kaiten. However, in the quiet backwaters of the Seto Inland Sea, Ozushima continues to bear silent witness to this tragic legacy which happened so many years ago. Its schools might be closed, its population might be greying and dying, its industries might be gone, but here at Ozushima the Kaiten endures ...


* The day after my visit to Alley Karasukojima in Kure.
* 7th December is also the eve of the anniversary of the Pacific War to the Japanese because of time zone differences.

** In 2017 the population of Ozushima was 275. Of these 78.9% were above the age of 65.


























 

Friday 14 October 2016

The Yamato Museum of Kure 呉市大和ミュジアム


 
 
The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato. Source : Revell
 



Visiting The Yamato Museum



The Yamato Museum is the more popular name for the Kure Maritime Museum ( 呉市海事歴史科学館 Kure Kaiji Rekishi Kagakukan ) in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. It is the World War II Imperial Japanese Navy super battleship IJN Yamato that the museum got its name from. And by the name of God, who hasn't heard of the Yamato!

After a stopover at Hiroshima City where I visited the Peace Memorial Park with the iconic Genbaku Dome on 8th June 2016, I proceeded to the nearby port city of Kure the next morning where two naval attractions awaited, the Yamato Museum and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Kure Museum. They were located at the wharf area adjacent to each other. As Kure was barely 26km away from Hiroshima, it only took 34 minutes and ¥500 ( USD 5.00 ) by rapid train service to get there.

At Kure Station, prominent signs indicated the directions to the naval museums. Visitors would have to walk another 5 to 10 minutes along an elevated covered walkway that linked the station to the museums. The pillars of the walkway were adorned with banners commemorating the 10 millionth visitor to the Yamato Museum last year, exactly ten years after the museum opened its doors. It had by May 2016 surpassed the 11 million visitor mark.

So you must be wondering, what is the relationship between Kure and the IJN Yamato? Unless stated otherwise, all photographs taken by the author.



 
The Yamato Museum celebrated its 10th anniversary
 last year.



Arigatou!! 10 million visitors banner hanging by the
walkway connecting Kure Station to
the Yamato Museum.

11 million visitors milestone achieved by May 2016.
 Source : Kure Maritime Museum.

  

Kure


The modern history of Kure is deeply intertwined with the Imperial Japanese Navy. It really started in 1870, two years after the Meiji Restoration, with the formation of the modern Japanese Navy. Because of its strategic location within the Seto Inland Sea, the Navy chose Kure to set up a major base.

In 1889, the Meiji Constitution of Japan was promulgated and the Navy also had a major restructuring, after close to two decades of rapid growth from a coastal force to a respectable naval organization. Kure was designated the second of the four Naval Districts ( 鎮守府 Chinjufu ) of Japan. The other three were, in chronological order, Yokosuka ( 横須賀 ), Sasebo ( 佐世保 ) and Maizuru ( 舞鶴 ).

By 1903, the Kure Naval Dockyard or Kure Arsenal had been established and would eventually evolve into Japan's biggest arsenal town. It was instrumental in propelling Japan to become a naval power in Asia.

Some of the warships built in Kure included the aircraft carriers Akagi ( 赤城 ), Soryu ( 蒼龍 ), Unyo ( 雲鷹 ), Chuyo ( 冲鷹 ), Shinyo ( 神鷹 ), Katsuragi ( 葛城 ), seaplane carriers Chitose ( 千歳 ), Chiyoda ( 千代田 ), seaplane tender Nisshin ( 日進 ), battleships Yamato ( 大和 ), Nagato ( 長門 ), Fuso ( 扶桑 ), Aki ( 安芸 ), Settsu ( 摂津 ), battlecruisers Tsukuba ( 筑波 ), Ikoma ( 生駒 ), Ibuki ( 伊吹 ), heavy cruisers Nachi ( 那智 ), Atago ( 愛宕 ), Mogami ( 最上 ) and the seaplane carrying submarine I-400. 

It suffered heavy bombardment by the USAAF during the closing months of WWII but was largely spared the direct effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as it was 26km away. After the War, Kure would evolve into a major ship building center and it still remains an important naval base for the JMSDF. It is also known as Yamato no Furusato ( 大和のふるさと ) which could be translated as " Hometown of the Yamato ".



Modern day Kure is a major base for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force.
 Source : Wikipaedia





The Kure Maritime Museum


The Yamato Museum is located at Kure's wharf area right across the bay from the shipyards that built the battleship Yamato almost eighty years ago. It is diagonally across the road from another major attraction of Kure, the JMSDF Kure Museum which specializes in undersea warfare, meaning submarines and anti-submarine warfare, mines and mine hunting.

Assuming that you are arriving on foot like I did, as were the majority of the visitors, the first thing that you will notice even before reaching the main museum building is a larger than life statue of Neptune in his glorious birthday suite and holding a trident, standing proudly at the main square. This God of the Seas is generally much more muscular looking compared to his many other iterations elsewhere in European cities.



A larger than life statue of Neptune at the main square
 in front of the Yamato Museum.

Still outside the museum but adjacent to the main square and next to the motorway is a narrow strip of land, the outdoor exhibit area, with several large sized artifacts from the battleship Mutsu ( 陸奥 ). The main anchor, the aft jackstaff, the propeller, the rudder and even the 16.1 inch main gun ( 410mm ) from turret number 3 is displayed. The IJN Mutsu was a Nagato-class battleship that entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1921 and was sunk in 1943 after it suffered a mysterious internal explosion at the Hashirajima Anchoring Area at Hiroshima Bay. Large portions of the battleship was salvaged in later years after the War and the relics are displayed in various parts of Japan. Although the Mutsu was constructed not at Kure but at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal near Tokyo, it sunk in the waters within the Kure Naval District and its artifacts are still relevant for the Yamato Museum.



Main anchor (主錨 ) of the battleship Mutsu


41cm ( 16 inch ) main gun from Mutsu's number 3 turret.



The breech of the 41cm main gun of the Mutsu.



The propeller of the Mutsu


The rudder of the Mutsu across the road fom the JMSDF kure museum

General Layout



The Yamato Museum is housed in a four-storey building that is rather non-descript. Unlike the JMSDF museum across the road with its " Iron Whale " the decommissioned JDS Akishio diesel submarine as its main facade, the Yamato Museum has nothing externally to scream about.

Inside the museum, the ticketing counter is located by the main entrance and it would set you back ¥500 ( US$5) for the admission ticket. The ticket itself is printed on art paper and would make a good book mark, if you have not gone the way of the e-book that is. Non-Japanese speaking visitors may obtain headsets that will provide translation of the exhibit write-ups free of charge.

The first floor is where you will find the museum shop and the History of Kure exhibits. It includes a large section devoted to the battleship Yamato. At the centre of the building is the Yamato Hiroba ( Square ) where the 1 : 10 scale model of the Yamato is displayed, the main attraction of the museum. The Large Object Exhibition Room is also on this floor where a Zero fighter, a midget submarine and a Kaiten human torpedo is displayed.

The second floor is mainly viewing decks and interconnecting passageway where some scale model of warships are on display while the third floor has a section on ship building technology and the Yamato theatre where movies and features are screened.

The fourth floor is where the library is located and there is also a viewing terrace where visitors may view the shipyard and wharf around the museum.


 

 
My Ticket





The first thing a visitor sees after entering the museum is the museum shop!
Stacks of naval and Yamato themed Japanese snacks on display.

The History of Kure Section


In this exhibit area are all the photographs and artifacts relating to the growth of Kure from a small seaside town in feudal Japan into one of the most important naval base and arsenal during WWII and its ultimate postwar adaptation to become a ship building hub.

As you enter this section, a life-sized mockup of the coal-fired boiler of the battleship Kongo greets you, complete with the figures of two seamen shoveling coal! As you move along, the exhibits progress chronologically from the early years of the Kure Naval District ( 1889 ) to the formation of the Kure Arsenal ( 1903 ) and then to the post WWI economic depression of the twenties, the Washington Treaty of the thirties which limited the tonnage of capital ships that each major naval power was supposed not to exceed, the development of the ( naval ) aviation industry, Kure and the Pacific War ( WWII ), civilian hardships during the War and the firebombing raids of 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the post war recovery and transition to civilian shipbuilding and finally the transformation of Kure into the modern port city of Japan that we see today.

There are many scale models of WWII naval aircrafts, warships and submarines and personal items belonging to long deceased commanders of the Imperial Japanese Navy like ceremonial swords and name seals, uniforms, documents etc.

An entire wall had even been plastered with photograph after photograph of all the ships ever built at the Kure Arsenal among which the Yamato is the most famous. The museum curator made sure you would never leave this section without having at least some understanding of the significance of Kure in the history of the Japanese Navy.



Life-sized replication of the boiler of the
IJN battleship Kongo.


Close-up of the above. Signboard reads Yarrow Type Boiler ( ヤーロー式ボイラー )
not surprising as IJN Kongo was built by the Vickers Shipbuilding Company.
 It was laid down at Burrow-In-Furness, in 1911.




Wall display on the creation of the Japanese Navy ( 1870 ),
promulgation of the Meiji Constitution ( 1889 ) and
the establishment of the Kure Naval District ( 1889 ).


 

Wall display and artifacts including engineering blue prints to illustrate
the industrialization of Kure at the turn of the 20th century.
The infusion of British ship building technology was crucial to the
transformation of Japan into an East Asian Maritime Power.


Beautifully constructed scale model of the battleship Kongo displayed in this section. 

 
1:100 scale model of Japan's first domestically constructed submarine
 the Type 6 ( modified Holland-class ).
Submarine Number 6 sank during training at Hiroshima Bay
on 15th Apr 1910 with the loss of all hands.

1:100 scale Japanese Navy submarine models.
 Note piggy-backed Kaiten human torpedo on I-16 ( top ).
A Watkin Clinometer and a submariner's old shoe from I-52 is also displayed!



A section on the naval aviation factory in Kure.



Close-up of the 1:24 scale Zero reconnaissance seaplane.

 
All 133 ships built at Kure Arsenal plus special attack crafts
are listed here, most with accompanying photographs.



The Battleship Yamato Subsection



This subsection of the History of Kure Exhibit gives a detailed history of the battleship Yamato, the then cutting edge technology that was applied in the design and construction of such a humongous warship and its operational history throughout WWII.

The focus was on the Yamato's last mission to Okinawa in the spring of 1945, the oneway suicide mission known as Operation Ten-Go to fight the American invasion fleet and defend the last of the Japanese territories before the Home Islands. On display are letters, postcards and even the wills of the Yamato's sailors who knew that they were unlikely to survive the coming battle.

The names of the entire crew of the Yamato as it headed for its last mission, many of which perished when the Yamato was sunk, is displayed prominently on the wall.


The many cutting edge technology that went into the design and
construction of the Yamato explained.




The super battleship Yamato on sea trials off Sukumo ( 宿毛 ), Kochi,
 on 30th Oct 1941. Wikipaedia.

 
 
Operation Ten-go : The last mission of the Yamato.

 
 
X marks the spot. The Yamato sank in 430m of water
off Kyushu,  20 miles west of Tokunoshima,
 way short of her original destination of Okinawa.



The Yamato Today Subsection



This subsection is dedicated to the discovery of the wreck of the Yamato which lies on the seabed 430m beneath the surface some 290km south of Kyushu Island. Many photographs are on display showing the battleship broken into many pieces scattered on the seabed.

Some salvaged artifacts are also on display, like corroded 25mm anti-aircraft cartridges, glass bottles, boots and other everyday items of that era. A diorama of part of the Yamato wreak is also displayed, showing how the toppled 18.1 inch gun turret was resting on the bottom of the sea.

A 9 min clip of the latest survey to the wreckage in May 2015 using digital technology is being screened at the Yamato Theatre on the 3rd floor.


Artifacts from the wreck of the Yamato : L to R electric lamp stands,
beer bottles, tiles from the officer's heads, donburi ( rice bowl ).

 
More artifacts : Bugle, Seawater Hose Nozzle and Battery.




1:350 scale diorama of the Yamato laying on the seabed in two pieces
and the ripped out turrets.




Photos from previous underwater survey of the Yamato wreck.



The 1:10 Scale Model of the Battleship Yamato



At the centre of the museum is its main attraction, the 1:10 scale model of the battleship Yamato. It is constructed by the Yamamoto Shipyard Company ( 山本造船株式会社 Yamamoto Zosen Kabushikigaisha ) of Kure, as proundly proclaimed by an inscribed metal plate attached to the pedestal. Since the actual battleship measured 263m in length, the scale model is exactly 26.3m long. It is HUGE. Simply the biggest model ship that I've ever seen and will likely ever see. The first warship model that I had as a child was the 1:426 scale Revell classic, the USS Arizona. That was subsequently followed by the Hasegawa and Tamiya 1:700 Waterline series, USS Enterprise, IJN Junyo, Mogami ... all nothing compared to this monster. You can see for yourselves how this model was constructed back in 2003 here.

It was constructed based on whatever information was available of the Yamato and photographs and data collected during the 1999 diving expedition to the wreck of the Yamato. The Japanese had deliberately destroyed the plans and any documents and photographs of the Yamato at the end of World War II and not much reference material was available for such a reconstruction.

The giant model ship occupies a recessed area in the middle of the museum building called the Yamato Hiroba ( Yamato Square ), sitting on top of a pedestal of sorts. Museum visitors can only view it from afar and will not be able to touch it. Every detail is taken care of and as accurately represented as possible, above and below the waterline. Even the seaplane is included.

 
 
 
1:10 scale Battleship Yamato. Builder : Yamamoto Shipyard Company Limited.
 
 
 
A an impressive 1:10 scale model of the IJN Yamato is displayed in
 the main hall of the museum.

 
 
 
You can appreciate the size of this model ship when compared to the man
standing next to it.
 
 
 
 
Every detail is painstakingly reproduced, from the seaplane to the propellers and rudder 
 
 
 
 
The superstructure and the anti-aircraft guns. Note the human figure on the right.

 
 
Visitors can go to the basement level and view the parts of the ship that is
below the waterline.


The Yamato model viewed from level 3 of the museum.

A close-up view of the upper deck with the 18.1 inch guns


The Large Objects Exhibit Room


This is the other interesting area of the museum, a large open space with high ceiling and an array of WWII relics like a Mitsubishi A6M7 Type 62 Zero Fighter, complete with engines and 13mm machine guns. Also on display are the Type 93 torpedo, a prototype of the Kaiten Type 10 suicide submarine, a late model Kairyu ( Sea Dragon ) midget submarine with hydroplanes that enabled it to be controlled like an airplane and shells of various types and caliber ( 18 inch and 16 inch ) from the Yamato and the Mutsu.

 The Kaitens are suicide submarines piloted by a single officer. The word kaiten ( 回天 ) itself means " return to heaven ". These special mission attack crafts were the result of Japan's desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war during the last two years of the Pacific War. A total of 6 models were developed, Types 1,2,4,5,6 and 10. Early models were modified from the very large Type 93 ( aka Long Lance ) torpedoes. Only the Type 10 displayed at the Yamato Museum was derived from the Type 92 torpedo and only the Type 1 actually saw combat.


The general layout of the Large Objects Exhibition Room.


Special Attack Weapon : Kaiten Type 10 Prototype.
This is a human torpedo kamikaze submarine.


The propellers of the Kaiten Type 10 and the write-up.
 
 
The relative size of the Kaiten Type 10 can be gauged from this photo.
 
 
Ceremonial short sword of a Kaiten operator and his written will.
 
 
The Type 93 torpedo on display adjacent to the Kaiten.

Mass production type Kairyu special attack midget submarine.
Kairyu ( 海龍 ) means sea dragon.



The Kairyu has hydroplanes that allowed it to be controlled like an aircraft.


 
16 and 18 inch shells of various types on display.
Also a cutaway gun barrel showing the thickness of the steel used in its construction.
 

 
The Zero Type 62 fighter with a 250kg bomb.

 
The Zero's Sakae 31 Ko-Type engine is also displayed.

 
the Zero Fighter's 13mm machineguns.


The gun sight of the Zero, engine parts and pilot's accessories.



Ship Building Technology Exhibit


This 3rd floor area looks more like a science museum than a history museum. It has all the hands on setups that will appeal most to young children, all to do with the principles of ship building and the technology of navigating the high seas.

You can learn about the most fundamental science behind what makes ships float on water or try peeping through a working periscope that looks out to the busy bay next to the museum. What I liked was the ship simulator with three large monitors where you can play captain and try to pilot your ship from the port out to the bay, not with the mouse and keyboard but with throttle and wheel. It was not as simple as it seemed, and collision avoidance was very much part of the game. Its free and you can try it as many times as you wished.



Ship Simulator. Source : Kure Maritime Museum.


Learning about floatation. Sourse : Kure Maritime Museum


The Future Hall / Yamato Theatre



This 3rd floor area is where the mini theatre is located and also where materiel related to the Japanese science fiction anime Space Battleship Yamato is displayed. In case you are not aware, this film was released back in 1974 and has since spawned numerous sequels. The story had it that in the year 2199 Earth was bombarded with radioactive meteorites by an alien race and was left barren with even the oceans evaporated. Humans retreated underground but faced extinction within a year. They obtained blueprints for a faster-than-light engine from a message capsule found in a mysterious spaceship which crashed on Mars, technology of another superior alien race from the Large Magellanic Cloud. They built the space warp drive ( Wave Motion Engine ) inside the ancient hull of the sunken but now exposed and partially buried battleship Yamato to hide it from the orbiting aliens and also installed an incredibly powerful Wave Motion Gun at the bow. Their mission was to go to the LMC, 170000 light years away, and obtain a device than would clean Earth of its radiation  ..... . It has been released as Star Blazers in the US. Its creator, Leiji Matsumoto, is now an honorary director of the museum.



Box art of the 1/500 scale Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Source Bandai

1/1000 scale plastic model of the Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Source Bandai.
 
 

The Yamato Theatre screens movies related to the Yamato daily

 

Other Attractions Of The Museum


There is a library on the 4th floor where you can find all sorts of reading material on Kure and the Yamato, books, maps, photos etc. There is also a rooftop viewing terrace where you can enjoy a panoramic view of Kure Port and its surrounding shipbuilding facilities and wharves. A park along the waterfront area behind the museum where you can view passing ships is shaped like the upper deck of the Yamato. Don't forget to check out the Museum Shop at the entrance before you leave. You will find scale model kits of the Yamato from various brands, some are limited edition and 1:350 scale premium kits.



Viewing Terrace at Yamato Museum. Source : Kure Maritime Museum


This waterfront park has a layout that is a dimensionally accurate reflection
 of the forecastle / upper deck of the Yamato. Note the rising area behind the two girls
which represents the bow. See image below. Source : Kure maritime Museum.

 

Look carefully. This seafront park has the shape of the Yamato's
port side forecastle complete with the A and B turrets.
Note also the JMSDF Kure Museum with its decommissioned Akishio
hunter-killer submarine.


A Unique Military Museum 



Let us be honest. The Kure Maritime Museum is more about the naval history of Kure and especially of the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato than it is about the shipbuilding industry of Kure. It is nothing but a naval museum, despite its formal name suggesting otherwise. It is much better known as the Yamato Museum, locally in Japan as well as internationally and among the foreign visitors to Japan. In fact with so much of the exhibits focusing on the Yamato, the museum might as well just call itself the Yamato Museum of Kure from now on.

The Yamato was a war machine operated by a brutal military regime that had been defeated many years ago. It has been resting peacefully on the ocean floor for the past seventy one years, going nowhere, certainly not to the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is now a cold, dark and watery war grave.

The Yamato Museum does a good job in enabling the younger generation to understand the brutality of the War and to marvel at the advance technology that went into the construction of the world's biggest battleship, ever.

The era of the battleship is long over and there will never be another ship like the Yamato or its sister ship the Musashi. Like the Mitsubishi Zero Fighter, this is one of the few things that the Japanese can still be proud of and it continues to live in their hearts and minds.

This one of a kind naval museum is highly recommended especially for fans of WWII and naval history and definitely worth a visit if you happened to be in Hiroshima. After the Yamato Museum, walk across the road and hop over to the adjacent Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Kure Museum. It cannot be missed with its huge albacore-hulled submarine at its front. It is just as unique and even better - less crowded and with free admission! That will have to be covered in another article though.






CGI of the Imperial Japanese Navy Battleship Yamato as it appeared in 1945.
大日本帝国海軍戦艦大和( 昭和二十年 )
Wikicommons.