Nishiki Secret Air Base Museum

photo by Yagyu8 · CC BY-SA 4.0

A naval air base active for 21 months: 1,500 m runway, over 6,000 trainees, tunnels with a guide.

You start at the museum, where there is a full-scale model of the training aircraft known as the ‘red dragonfly’ (akatonbo); then a guide takes you on foot into the tunnels, which according to the plan include the torpedo workshop, the barracks and the operations room. Navy trainees were trained here, and from 1945 the same aircraft trained kamikaze pilots.

The Hitoyoshi naval air base was built by the navy from November 1943: a concrete runway 1,500 metres by 50 and an area with headquarters and quarters. On 1 February 1944 the Hitoyoshi naval air corps was formed, at first to train mechanics, and from May also trainee pilots: more than 6,000, in a valley with neither sea nor lake. After two American raids and as the war worsened, the base moved on to training kamikaze pilots and then to home defence, and in the spring of 1945 workshops, depots, barracks and an operations room were dug underground. The first raid, on 18 March 1945 with carrier aircraft, killed 9 servicemen and 4 civilians; the last, on 14 May, killed no one. The corps was disbanded on 10 July 1945, after only one year and nine months of activity. In 2015 a group of volunteers discovered that what looked like an air-raid shelter was a large navy installation; the following year they handed the materials over to the municipality of Nishiki, which opened the museum in August 2018. The official name is 錦町立人吉海軍航空基地資料館.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–16:00 (July and August until 17:00), closed at the end of the year (dates not published); individuals do not book, groups of 15 do. Three plans, with fares from 01/04/2026: Basic, about 60 minutes, 1,000 yen for adults (700 for elementary and junior high school, free for pre-schoolers): the museum and a 30-minute guided tunnel, the underground torpedo workshop; Standard, about 90 minutes, 1,700 yen (1,400 for children): the museum and three tunnels in a 60-minute guided tour, with an audio guide outdoors; Premium, about 150 minutes, 2,200 yen (1,900): the museum and four sites in 120 minutes, with a transfer by car to the headquarters and quarters area. Tours leave every hour from 9:30; the Premium only at 9:30 and 13:30. You can enter the tunnels only with the guide. Audio guide in Japanese, English and Chinese. Many insects. The shop, café and information room are free; in one part of the exhibition photos are forbidden. Getting there: by car, 15 minutes from the Hitoyoshi exit, with a free car park for 50 cars and 4 coaches, or by taxi from the exit; the Kuma Railway has run on the whole line since 20/09/2026 and the museum arranged free shuttles from Higo-Nishimura Station only from 20 to 23/09: no regular service is known at present. ⚠️ After the earthquake of 28/07/2026 the underground guided visits were suspended (07/08), then resumed with the Basic plan only (23/08); since 25/09/2026 all three plans are available again, according to the museum's site.

🚉 高原記念碑前 · 10 min walk

Sources: 132base.jp · 132base.jp · 132base.jp · 132base.jp · 132base.jp · kumamoto.guide

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