Kanoya Air Base Museum

Published on : 08/06/2019
by : Japan Experience

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Kanoya Air Base Museum (鹿屋航空基地) in Kagoshima Prefecture has a large collection of aircraft on display including a Kawanishi H8K2 flying boat from World War II.

Kanoya Air Base Museum 鹿屋航空基地

The Kanoya Air Base Museum is a little off the beaten track but a great place for aviation enthusiasts and for those with an interest in the Pacific War.

History

The museum is located in the Osumi Peninsula in southern Kagoshima Prefecture at the very southern tip of mainland Japan. It is now an air base for the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, the name given to today's Japanese navy. However, during the latter years of World War II it was one of the biggest bases for Tokkotai, the Special Attack Forces, commonly known as kamikaze.

A Mitsubishi Zero, Kanoya Air Base Museum. A Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane from World War II on display at the Kanoya Air Base Museum in Kagoshima

Exhibits

As you approach the modern museum building you see more than a dozen aircraft outside the building. There are fixed wing as well as helicopters, and the planes on view include trainers, transports, search and rescue, early warning, and reconnaissance aircraft.

Some are fairly modern, but pride of place must go the oldest aircraft on display outside, a Kawanishi H8K2 flying boat from World War II. This 4-engined amphibious aircraft was named "Emily" by American forces and this is the sole surviving example in the world.

Among the 15 or 26 other aircraft on display outside is another "flying boat", the Shin Meiwa US 1A, from the 1950's, a Kawasaki P2J, the Japanese-developed version of the Lockheed P2, which is also on display. The helicopters range is size from the diminutive Bell 47 to the Boeing Sea Knight. All the aircraft are in good condition and can be approached up close, but not entered.

The contemporary museum building has two floors, the first dedicated to the history of naval aviation in Japan up to the present day. The main attraction is a reconstructed Mitsubishi Zero, the most iconic of the wartime aircraft of Japan.

Steps let you climb up close and peer inside the cockpit. Other displays show old uniforms, weapons, historic photos etc, but what I found most intriguing were the many models of aircraft carriers, most of which it seems were existing ships and hulls under construction that were converted into aircraft carriers, leading to some unusual designs.

There are also displays about the JMSDF's current operations including sub hunting and search and rescue. There is a helicopter fuselage that you can enter and sit in the pilot's seat and the nose cone of a Neptune that you can enter.

Upstairs is devoted to the kamikaze pilots. Hundreds of photos of each and every pilot who died, along with memorabilia and personal artifacts from them makes for a very somber experience. This was the main kamikaze base of the Japanese Navy in the last part of the Pacific War.

Kanoya Air Base Museum, Kagoshima. A part of the big collection of historical aircraft on display outside the Air Museum in Kanoya, Kagoshima

Chiran Peace Museum For Kamikaze Pilots Museum, Kagoshima. Shin Meiwa "flying boat" of the JMSDF on display outside the Kanoya Air Base Museum, Kagoshima

The museum is recommended for aviation and World War II buffs and also suitable for kids.

All the information is in Japanese, but most of the displays are self explanatory, however, usually someone on the staff speaks good English, and they do have an explanatory video in English.

Other World War II-Related Sites in Japan

Visitors to Japan interested in the history of World War II should visit the Chiran Peace Museum, also in Kagoshima, the Yamato Battleship Museum in Kure, Yasukuni Shrine, the Yushukan War Memorial Museum and the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery all three in Tokyo as well as the Peace Museums in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which commemorate the atomic bombings of those cities in August, 1945.

On Okinawa, where the main ground fighting between US and Japanese forces took place in Japan there are a number of sites relating to World War II including the Peace Memorial Museum on Mabuni Hill and the Former Japanese Navy Underground HQ in the suburbs of Naha.

Chiran Peace Museum For Kamikaze Pilots Museum, Kagoshima. Kanoya Air Base Museum in Kanoya, Kagoshima
Kanoya Air Base Museum, Kagoshima. Model of a Japanese aircraft carrier from World War II

Access - Getting There

Kanoya Air Base Museum
3-chome-11 Nishihara, Kanoya-shi
Kagoshima 893-0064
Tel: 0994 42 0233

Open 9 am to 5 pm every day.
Free entry.

If you are on the Osumi Peninsula then the museum and air base can be reached by the local bus that runs between Shibushi Station, the terminal of the JR Nichinan Line, and Tarumizu where a ferry runs across Kagoshima Bay to Kagoshima city.

The most direct route is with a small express bus from Kagoshima Chuo Station to Kanoya. This bus stops right in front of the Air Base and the bus ticket includes the ferry fare. There are also buses direct from Kagoshima Airport to Kanoya.

Also in southern Kagoshima is the Chiran Peace Museum. This was an Army air base, and Kanoya was a Navy air base, and both have museums devoted to the kamikaze pilots. If you only have time to visit one, I would suggest the Kanoya museum as the better, though Chiran does have some other tourist sites worth visiting nearby.