Ninoshima

photo by ブルーノ・プラス (Bruno Plus) · CC BY 4.0

photo by HIROSHIMA (Panoramio) · CC BY 3.0

In 1945 the quarantine station became a field hospital for 10,000 wounded in 20 days.

The ferry from Ujina takes about twenty minutes, and the other islands of the Inland Sea are in view the whole way. Once ashore, Nagahama beach is a few steps away; if you climb towards Aki no Kofuji, 278 metres, you will find a beginners' trail where the descent is more slippery than the ascent. Of the quarantine station that became a field hospital in 1945, no building you can visit remains.

Ninoshima is an island in Minami Ward, about twenty minutes by ferry from Ujina pier. It was a maritime quarantine station from the end of the nineteenth century; on 6 August 1945, the day of the atomic bomb, the former station became a field hospital and received about 10,000 wounded brought by ship from Hiroshima in the weeks that followed. Today the island lives off fishing, a small settlement and the people who climb Aki no Kofuji or go down to Nagahama beach.

ℹ️ The Ninoshima Kisen ferry leaves from Ujina: 450 yen per trip for adults, 220 for children (book of 11 trips, 4,500 yen for adults); departures about every hour, from Ninoshima 6:00–20:30 and from Hiroshima/Ujina 6:30–20:50, with a crossing of about twenty minutes. The climb up Aki no Kofuji, 278 metres, starts from Shimoke; the ferry operator's website advises wearing long sleeves even in summer and warns that the descent is more slippery than the ascent. There is no admission ticket for the island.

Sources: ninoshimakisen.jp · ninoshimakisen.jp · city.hiroshima.lg.jp · tokyo-np.co.jp

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