Explanation of the
headquarters’ interior
Entrance stairs
105 steps descending over 20 meters underground. Down the stairs, the inside of the headquarters is revealed with tunnels stretching in all directions.
Pathways
Inside the tunnel complex, countless numbers of gloomy passages spread out like a labyrinth.
Staff officers’ room
Located close by the commanding officer’s room and the strategy room, it is there that staff officers committed suicide by way of hand grenades. The traces of grenades’ fragments remain as distinct as on the actual day.
Petty officers’ room
Before the honorable death around June, it is said that a large number of soldiers rested and slept there standing tightly packed.
Medical room
This is called the medical room as it is said that it was the main room where many injured soldiers were found.
Commanding officer’s room
On the surface of a wall of this room, the farewell poem of commanding officer Ota is still brightly visible: “Born as a man, nothing fulfills me more than to die under the banner of the Emperor”.
Map of the underground
headquarters
Photos of the inside of
the underground
headquarters
The Former Japanese
Navy Underground
Headquarters museum
The museum has an exhibit of documents from the former Japanese navy as well as small arms, military uniforms and similar articles and letters from soldiers to their families that were discovered within the caves.
The telegram of
commanding officer
Ota Minoru
“This is how the Okinawa people have fought the war”
At the entrance of the museum can be found a photo of the commanding officer Ota Minoru as well as the telegram that he sent to the Vice Admiral.
Major exhibits
The tunnel complex was completely dug with “hoes” and “picks”.
Articles found inside the former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters.
Weapons and a hand made spear of the Japanese army.
