There is a building called "Yokaren Peace Memorial Museum" in a nearby town called Ami, and it displays many things related to war, such as a letter left by a very young pilot who later died in the World War 2. The meaning of "Yokaren" would be "a preparatory military base".
I wasn't allowed to take any pics inside this museum, but what I saw was really graphic. For example, there was a film that showed me how a 17 years old boy decided to be a pilot and later became "Kamikaze(suicide attacker)" and rammed his fighter jet into an American battleship.
And there was a memorial park where there were statues of two young men who enrolled in the preparatory military base in this town. This park was made to soothe the souls of those who died in the war against the allied forces.
Adjacent to the memorial museum was a military base that allowed me to take a look at old weapons, some of which were used in the early 20th century.
I think there were more than 40 or more old tanks that were displayed. I made plastic models of tanks when I was a kid, but this was the first time for me to see real ones. It was freezing cold on this day, but if the weather had been nice and the cherry trees in front of the tanks had been in bloom I would have seen them differently. I mean, I felt chilly upon seeing these tanks.
Let me show some of those weapons. This is called 15G and had been used until '97. It weighs about 13 tons and can fire 40 times per hour.
And this weapon was made to attack tanks, and the canon barrel can be raised or lowered to hide itself in the bank to protect the soldiers.
In this building I could see things like old engines that were mounted on tanks.
This is the propeller of the reconnaissance jet below. As you can see by the size of the doors, it was so huge.
This jet had 450 horse power and was used in the Sino-Japanese war, which broke out in 1937. This reconnaissance jet was meant to fly over the water.
I came to this place in order to take pics of the tanks, but I was informed by a military personnel that there was a museum where I could see how young boys trained and later sacrificed their life. When I was just seeing those old weapons I wasn't so overwhelmed, but the films shown at the memorial museum were so real and I was a bit scared. I couldn't guess what it was like to become a Kamikaze pilot at the age of 17 and die without experiencing any romances.
