Ruins of the Chūgoku Regional Military Headquarters Air Defense Room, Military command bunker at Hiroshima Castle, Japan.
The Ruins of the Chugoku Regional Military Headquarters Air Defense Room is an underground reinforced concrete bunker located near Hiroshima Castle. The structure preserves sections of original military communication equipment and defensive installations from World War II.
The facility began as a military command center and gained tragic significance on August 6, 1945, when 14-year-old Yoshie Oka sent the first report of the atomic bombing through military telephone lines. This event marked it as a key site in Hiroshima's atomic weapons history.
Young female students from Hijiyama Girls High School operated the communication equipment inside this facility during the war. Their involvement reveals how education and civilian life became intertwined with military operations in wartime Japan.
The bunker is accessible on foot by reaching Kamiya-cho Higashi streetcar station and walking from there toward the nearby Hiroshima Castle. Wear comfortable shoes as there is a short walk through the city and visiting involves exploring an underground facility.
Located roughly 790 meters from the atomic blast hypocenter, this bunker ranks among very few surviving military command facilities from that period. Its survival makes it a rare physical record of how wartime operations unfolded at an institutional level.
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