Haebaru Military Hospital Tunnel No. 20

In 1990 it was the first war site in Japan to be designated a cultural property.

Seventy metres of tunnel, one metre eighty high and wide, dug into Kuganimui hill. The entrance curves inwards, made that way on purpose so that bursts of fire from outside would not reach the far end. Halfway along, where the tunnel crosses Nos. 19 and 21, it widens: this was the operating theatre. Along the walls the bunks remain, ninety centimetres wide, the seriously wounded above and the lightly wounded below. A helmet is compulsory and they give you one at the entrance.

It is part of the complex of some thirty tunnels that the Okinawa military hospital dug in 1945 between the hamlets of Kyan and Kanegusuku, after the bombing of 10 October 1944 had destroyed its premises in Haebaru elementary school. Tunnel No. 20 began as an internal medicine ward and was reclassified as the second surgical ward as the number of wounded grew. It was here that the students of the Himeyuri Nursing Corps were attached as auxiliaries. Open to the public since June 2007.

ℹ️ ⚠️ Booking only, and you cannot go in on your own: you go with a guide, in groups of eight at most, for about half an hour. Sessions in the morning from 9:00 to 11:45 and in the afternoon from 13:00 to 16:30, every forty-five minutes. Closed every Wednesday and from 29 December to 3 January. Three hundred yen for adults from outside the municipality, two hundred for high school students, one hundred for elementary and junior high school students. Helmet and torch lent free of charge. Book at the Haebaru cultural centre, 098-889-7399, no later than three days before; groups of seventeen or more only with the online form.

🚉 兼城十字路 · 14 min walk

Sources: town.haebaru.lg.jp · town.haebaru.lg.jp · wayfarerdaves.com · okinawa.stripes.com

All series · Open the map