Etajima Naval Academy

Etajima is a large island in Hiroshima Bay off the city of Kure.  It’s home to the Naval Academy of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). You can take an official guided tour of the campus. This includes a visitor centre with exhibits presenting ships and equipment used by the modern Japanese navy, and a souvenir shop selling JMSDF badges, stationery, sweets, and plastic models of Japan’s most famous WWII battleships and aircraft carriers. There’s also a restaurant serving kaigun karei, the curry served every Friday on JMSDF ships. You can go inside the impressive Auditorium built in 1917 designed to hold large gatherings, and see the dignified main academy building from outside.  

The centrepiece of the tour is the Naval History Museum, an austere Doric temple built in 1936 with public donations. Exhibits document the development of the Japanese navy from the end of the Tokugawa period to the present day, with moving artefacts from the Pacific War.  

Outside, you can see a minisub used at Pearl Harbor, a smaller submarine for suicide missions, an Armstrong gun, and various torpedoes. There’s also a shell from the Yamato, the world’s biggest battleship, and an entire gun turret from the battleship Mutsu.

Important
If you visit the Academy, don’t wear shorts and sandals. They won’t let you in.

Information

Name in Japanese: 海上自衛隊幹部候補生学校
Pronunciation: kai-jō jee-etai kan-bu kō-ho-sei gakkō