Kure: Yamato Museum

(Says Yamato Museum).

Once inside and doing my best not to go to the gift shop first, we headed to the main exhibition hall. In it sits the 1:10 scale hand made model of the Yamato. It is big. Very big. It takes up the whole floor basically. I shall let the pictures do the talking on this one.

As you can see you can walk all around it and also go down some stairs to go up near the hull of the ship and all around it.

Into the first room it details the history of Kure, how the town started, how the port came to be and the people who were most involved in its development (including a few foreign people). They had some various items on display from back then, pieces of buildings, peoples items etc.

Behind that they had a big display from a boiler room of a warship (forgot to take a pic of the sign, so not sure which, but I think from WW2) as well as a gun from an older style ship.

They had a few of Admiral Togo Heihachiro's items. He is a very famous admiral in Japanese history, the "Nelson of the East". He defeated the Russian navy in the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War, the first time an Asian country had defeated a European in naval combat. The two items I recall in there that are his, are his "favourite" watch and tea pot!

Next up some more display case shots. Various letters to family from a submarine that sunk in training in 1910 with all lives lost, a naval ensign from the destroyer Kaede, postcards from Kure.

Next up a large model of the battleship Kongo.

Next case has some items from Tamon Yamaguchi, who was in charge of the aircraft carriers Hiryu and Soryu, and went down with the Hiryu during the battle of Midway in 1942. The items are his favourite lanyard and a few of his letters, the bottom brown one to his wife. The other letters are from Isoroku Yamamoto.

Next is a very large model of the port of Kure during WW2. You can see the Yamato docked there too if you look carefully.

Here we have some items that were salvaged from the wreck of the Yamato. Next is a model of what the Yamato looks like on the sea floor today. Next a picture showing many of the people on the Yamato and in the display case many letters from these people and a naval officers hat.

In this section the had a lot of wills and final letters to family, which you cant take pictures of since they are of such a private nature. Next we a dagger and a katana belonging to officers on the Yamato. And after a doll holding a senbonburi, a headband for protection and goodluck.. The dots are all made from blood from different people.

Next a large model of the Nagato and a naval ensign (not sure which ship it came from). Also a large model of the carrier Akagi.

Next up a naval ensign from the Battleship Hyuga. Then a shot of all the ships that were built in the Kure naval yard before and during WW2. A total of 133 ships. Everything from a small tanker up to aircraft carrier and the battleship Yamato herself.

On the way into the next area they had the ensign of the battleship Nagato. It was owned by some celebrity in Japan, who donated it recently to the museum.

In the next room they had 2 suicide submarines and restored Zero fighter plane! In the display case here you can see various items from submarine personal, in these pictures you can see a hachimaki (headband) and a tanto (like a dagger sized katana).

Next up is the Kaiten. It was single seat submarine which would be carried on the hull of a normal submarine. It was basically a bomb with a pilot that would be undocked from the mother sub, and driven into the hull of a ship.

Next is the Kairyu suicide submarine. It had seats for 2 plus carried 2 torpedoes and a large warhead in front. This type of submarine never actually saw action in the war (this particular one was hit by a rocket from an American plane and sunk while docked in harbour. It was later raised and fixed back up).

Next up, the Zero fighter! One of the most famous figher planes of the war, and certainly the best fighter in early WW2. In the display case after you can see machine guns from a zero.

And finally a group shot of the room.

Last we have a shot of a display case with a ton of different ship models in it.

Upstairs they have a room mostly talking about modern day Kure, more so for kids and teaching about ship building technology.

That was it for this museum! Possibly the coolest museum I have ever seen (other than Dads of course!). We spent a good 30min in the gift shop I believe, where we got some souvenirs for people. You wouldn't believe all the Yamato themed food they had..Navy Curry, Yamato cookies..etc etc. Hilarious.

Beside this museum they have a museum for the JSDF (Japanese Self Defence Force), the modern military of Japan. They have an actual submarine outside of it that was made in 1983 and retired in 2001 I think. its huge.

After that it was back on the train to head to Hiroshima! I will post about that in the next update!