Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters

Below a quiet residential area in Tomigusuku, south of Naha, a network of tunnels was hand-dug by the Japanese Navy during the final stages of the Pacific War. The underground headquarters served as the command centre for naval forces defending Okinawa against the American invasion in 1945. Parts of the tunnel complex are now open to visitors, reached by descending 13 metres below ground via narrow concrete steps.

The tunnels are stark: bare rock, dim lighting, and small rooms branching off the main corridors. The walls of the command room are still marked with shrapnel holes from the grenades used in the collective suicide of Ota and his senior officers in June 1945. It is an uncomfortable place, and deliberately so. The adjacent museum provides context about the naval campaign and the broader Battle of Okinawa. The site takes about 45 minutes to visit and pairs naturally with a trip to the Peace Memorial Park in the south. It is not a place for the very young, but for those interested in the Pacific War it is unusually direct about what happened in these rooms.

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A story
Admiral Ota Minoru, the commander of the naval forces who directed operations from these tunnels, sent a final telegraph to Tokyo headquarters on 6 June 1945 before the position was overrun. The message asked the Japanese government to extend its gratitude to the Okinawan people, who had fought alongside soldiers, cared for the wounded, and died in disproportionate numbers. He then killed himself in the command room. The room still bears the marks of that death.