Located in Hiroshima Bay, Etajima was once separated from nearby Nomi Island by the Hitonose Channel. The channel was later reclaimed, connecting the two islands. Since the Meiji era, Etajima has been known as a “sacred place of the Navy.”
Naval Academy
In 1888, the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy relocated from Tsukiji in Tokyo to Etajima. It later gained international recognition as one of the world’s three great naval academies, alongside those in Annapolis, United States, and Dartmouth, United Kingdom.
Many distinguished naval officers spent their formative years here, including Saneyuki Akiyama, a staff officer of the Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War, and Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II.
Today, the site serves as the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s First Service School and Officer Candidate School. About 2,000 personnel—roughly one-tenth of Etajima City’s population—live on the island.
The campus retains numerous historic buildings in their original form. A brick cadet hall completed in 1893 under the guidance of a British architect now serves as the main building of the Officer Candidate School. Other notable structures include a grand auditorium built in 1918 using granite from Yamaguchi Prefecture and the white Education Reference Museum, completed in 1936.
Museum of Naval History
Visitors joining public tours this spring could observe newly enrolled officer candidates moving across the campus with disciplined bearing. The Education Reference Museum displays about 1,000 naval-related artifacts, including farewell letters written by kamikaze pilots.
“The history and traditions of maritime officer education have remained deeply rooted here since the establishment of the Naval Academy,” said Lt. Yoshikatsu Mizutani of the First Service School. “Around 3,000 personnel transfer in and out each year. It is rare anywhere in Japan to find an educational institution with so many historic buildings still preserved.”
Kaiyusha, a former Meiji-era welfare hall, is now preserved and operated by a nonprofit organization.
Memories of the ‘Student Clubs’
Until the end of World War II, residents opened their homes as “student clubs,” where naval cadets could relax on their days off. One such club has been recreated at the Furusato Exchange Center, where 96-year-old Nobuko Okubo shares her memories.
“When I was in the fifth grade, our home became the ‘Okubo Club,'” she recalled. “The cadets would come on Sundays, take off their uniforms, and relax. There was a rule that women of any age were called oba-san [auntie], and they called me ‘Little Auntie’ and played with me.”
The island also retains the remains of a hall that served as a welfare and recreation facility in the late Meiji period. After the war, it was sold to private owners and is now known as Kaiyusha, where a nonprofit organization manages and preserves the building.
Ferries operate from Hiroshima Port and Kure Port. The island can also be reached by road from Kure.
(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: Nozomi Kobayashi
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AloJapan.com