The Museum of JGSDF Camp Zentsuji, Military museum at JGSDF Camp Zentsuji, Japan
The Museum of JGSDF Camp Zentsuji displays military vehicles, weapons, and personal equipment spanning decades of Japan's ground defense forces. The exhibition includes both large vehicles and smaller items that document the daily work and operations of soldiers.
The museum was established in 2006 and focuses on the history of Japan's ground defense forces since their founding in 1954. Its collection shows how equipment and tactics evolved over the decades.
The building is nicknamed Nogi Hall after General Nogi Maresuke, the 11th Division's first commander, and today also houses the 14th Music Band. The indoor collection keeps rifles such as the Type 30 and Type 38 and pistols including the Type 14, while the outdoor yard shows a Type 61 and a Type 74 tank, a 75式 multiple rocket launcher, a UH-1B and a V-107A helicopter.
The museum is inside the Camp Zentsuji grounds, in the 3rd Camp barracks area, at 2-1-1 Minamimachi, Zentsuji, Kagawa. It closes on Wednesdays and over the New Year holidays, and admission is free. From JR Zentsuji Station on the Dosan Line it is about a 25-minute walk. Decommissioned tanks, helicopters and aircraft are displayed outdoors on the site.
The building itself is the overlooked exhibit: completed on 1 October 1898 as headquarters of the newly formed 11th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, it is nicknamed Nogikan after its first commander, General Maresuke Nogi. After the war it housed the Postal Ministry's life insurance bureau, passed to the Ground Self-Defense Force in January 1961, and served as headquarters of the 2nd Education Group until 1981 and the 2nd Combined Brigade until 27 March 2006.
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