The Yamato Museum-kure city japan
Back in may, I went on a 3 week trip to japan for the second time in my life, the trip covered parts of Hiroshima prefecture and northern Kyushu.
one of the highlights of this trip was having the opportunity to go to the yamato museum and the nearby japan maritime self defence forces museum in kure city (it has a museum submarine too).
it's one of 4 ww2 museums I've had the opportunity to visit in the country the others being the hiroshima peace museum last year as it was the 80th anniversaryyear, the osaka firebombing museum and the nagasaki peace museum
Kure city is home to the japan's naval shipyards and is home to a massive naval base, it's been a naval town since the time of the meiji restoration. like pearl harbor, kure naval base had their own massive air raid attack. surprisingly too, it appeared to be relatively unknown, considering it being the city where the yamato herself was built.
I went to kure during "golden week" a massive week of national and civic holidays, it was quite packed
the first picture is a big mockup of the yamato herself, there were a lot of people staring in awe at it, myself included of course
pic 2 is a recovered kairyu sea dragon submarine that was sunk in 1945 and was taken out of the ocean floor in 1978, used as a naval kamikaze
and in picture 3 is a replica Aichi E16A Zuiun seaplane
the yamato museum was probably a massive highlight of my trip to japan this year, having the opportunity to see naval history from 3 historical time periods crammed into 1 city was an absolute treat. additionally there's also boat tours that go to the nearby naval base and you can see various vessels docked in the area, such as subs, aircraft carriers, destoyers and mine sweepers. unfortunately it was sold out but I still was able to see alot from the docks
in the surrounding islands and mountains of kure, theres various bunkers, coastal defence batteries that you can find and hike to. there's also a nearby island that hosted a naval proving ground called " Kamegakubi Proving Ground" where they test fired the yamatos guns and other naval vessels guns, it's innacessible by land and you have to go there via boat tour, I didn't get to do that this year but I hope to do it in 2028 when I go back to do a battlefield tour of okinawa
if you get to go to japan, i'd say include a visit of kure city if you go to hiroshima, you can see a lot of ww2 history in that small region