18941894–1895 (Imperial General Headquarters); army city until 1945 · Hiroshima

Imperial General Headquarters at Hiroshima and the army city

1894 woodblock triptych of Emperor Meiji on horseback arriving in Hiroshima, with mounted officers, a band and lanterns — Archival image: Nobukazu Yōsai. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When Japan went to war with Qing China in 1894, the Imperial General Headquarters moved into Hiroshima Castle and the Emperor Meiji directed the war from the city, which was then the western end of the railway and had a harbour at Ujina for shipping troops to the mainland. For half a century Hiroshima stayed a leading army base, part of why it was chosen as an atomic target.

Sites

Site 1: Site of the Imperial General Headquarters, Hiroshima CastleFoundation stones of the 1894 headquarters and a wartime concrete bunker in the castle grounds.Map ↗
Site 2: Former Army Clothing DepotVast brick army warehouses that survived the atomic bomb.Map ↗
Site 3: Ujina portThe harbour where soldiers left for Korea, China and the Pacific.Map ↗
Site 4: Army quarantine station remains, NinoshimaIsland remains of the 1895 quarantine station, later a refuge for bomb victims.Map ↗

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