Category Archives: Others

Kentarou Tominaga, Kotaro Yamada and Hiroki Arai Miura-shi in Kanagawa Prefecture is known for producing a wide variety of high-quality vegetables. In one of the fields there, however, there is a round flat odd structure that actually fits in the place and everyday life of local residents. It is what remains from an old artillery battery, Kenzaki Battery, built by the Imperial Japanese Army. The facility was built in current Minamishitaura-machi in Miura-shi as a part of the Tokyo Bay Shore military bases developed in Meiji Era and during World War ll. A 6-meter-long 15-inch naval gun was located to protect Tokyo and Yokosuka Military Port. Less was known about … Continue reading →

Kazuhiro Eguchi There is an unusual vegetable garden in Hananoi, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba Prefecture, with six large concrete tubes sticking out from the ground. The tubes in fact belonged to the old underground facility for the rocket-powered interceptor aircraft “Shusui”, which was to be completed by the Imperial Japanese Army before the end of World War Il. This area was part of Kashiwa Air Field which was established by the Japanese Army to combat US air raids over the country, particularly Tokyo. Shusui with a rocket engine was going to be located here for defense against B-29s. The aircraft, however, never played its intended role as its development did not complete … Continue reading →

Tetsuya Onda Some bunkers from Pacific War still remain in the pastures in Makinouchi, Nemuro-shi in Hokkaido, the region with successful dairy industry. The bunkers were built during the Pacific War in order to protect military airplanes in one of the Imperial Japanese Navy airfields in Nemuro, which was a defense base in the Northern part of Japan. They were domes entirely covered with earth to camouflage. There are five bunkers in the region and four out of them sit still in the farmland of Akio Kusuhara, 40, who came to Hokkaido from Aichi Prefecture as a new farmer six years ago. According to his wife, Wakana, 27, “Cows like … Continue reading →

Kazuhiro Eguchi This rusting cannon of old Japanese navy base sits still abandoned in a farmland on the Hahajima Island, which is approximately 1,000 kilometers to the south of the capital of Japan and accessible from Takeshiba pier. It was a high-angle gun to repel enemy forces from the second-largest island of the Ogasawara Islands during the Pacific War. Akinori Fujitani, 45, and his wife Tomoka, 43, came to Hahajima 20 years ago as new farmers and found the cannon in their new farmland. They said they felt uncomfortable at the first sight but have never thought of discarding it. Hahajima, a popular tourist destination with beautiful beaches, was a … Continue reading →