Kure: April 1, 2024

I visited Kure, a navy city in Hiroshima Prefecture, and had many opportunities to think about war and peace.

Kure's history as a navy city started in Meiji era. One of the navy headquarters was placed here. Ship building and ather related industries developed.  

 

Battleship Yamato and other famous ships were built in Kure before the World War 2.

In the post-war era, one of five regional bases of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was placed in Kure. Shipbuilding and related industries prosper here.

There are bases of Marine Self-Defense Force and naval dockyards along the port.

We can see several submarines mooring alongside a pier.

Some crews were on the submarines.

A ship was places in a dockyard.

 

Battleship Yamato was built in the place between 1938 to 1940. It was the largest battleship in the world when it was completed.

Yamato was sunk by the attacks of U.S. forces in 1945 during the World War 2. Various information was displayed in Yamato Museum, in central Kure. There is a 1/10 size model of Yamato in the Museum.

 

Marine SDF has a information center near the museum. A part of the facility is a retired submarine. It is76 meter long.

An anime movie titled “In This Corner of the World,” made in 2016, was widely watched and made an impact in Japan. The movie was produced based on a comic published in 2009.

The movie draws the daily lives of ordinary people in Kure at the wartime. Their lives were torn apart by massive air raids and a drop of atomic bomb.

The main character is a young woman named Suzu-san. The site of her house is preserved. 

We can see the port from the house.