This series is about the Japanese home front in and around Sasebo, Japan during World War II. It is not a condemnation or critique of actions taken by either side during the war but rather a look at the civilian perspective of the war and the still surviving facilities that supported the war effort.

During World War II children were employed building weapons for the military, farming or other menial tasks, but in Miya Village the local elementary school students created something for themselves and each other.

Miya was a small fishing and farming village located not far from the target-rich environments of Sasebo and Kawatana. Though not usually attacked, American fighter-bombers often flew overhead and on one occasion damaged the nearby Umegae sake brewery. Concerned for the safety of his students, elementary school Principal Ikeda Chiaki came up with a plan to build an air raid shelter near the school that could double as a classroom, allowing education to continue even as bombs fell.

Ikeda had a few thing working against him though.

Normally such work would be handled by adults or teenagers, but that was manpower Ikeda didn’t have. All adults worked toward the war effort in some capacity and high school students had been taken from their schools to build weapons and perform war-related tasks. Ikeda had students up to the middle-school level.

The man himself was an educator, not known to have been trained as either an architect or in construction.

They began on Aug. 29, 1943 and continued to work on their shelter until Aug. 15, 1945. Ikeda himself named the shelter “Mukyudo,” or “Eternal Cave.”

Mukyudo is unique amongst Japan’s many air raid shelters because it’s the only known school-style shelter built by schoolchildren. By school-style I mean it contained a classroom, restroom, kitchen and the all important Imperial room with a displayed image of the Showa Emperor (Hirohito).

Classroom as seen from both directions

Miya, absorbed by Sasebo in 1958, is still a community of farms wedged into the flatland between Kyushu’s uneven hills and verdant peaks. The cave is easy to miss, located on a side road off the main route through town. A school is still nearby, but it’s not much of a landmark as the river has been shifted to come between it and Mukyudo.

The cave entrance is only noticeable because of the little memorials out in front, even on this side road, if I hadn’t been looking for it, it would have been easy to overshoot the site. It looked like the entrance to the Flintstone residence, a normal-sized doorway in the side of a rocky hill. Originally it was smaller, barely big enough for a man to squeeze through, and less likely to let shrapnel in.

Inside the cave, the Flintstone vibe continued. The classroom we stepped into had a high ceiling and smooth walls, there was even a stone desk rising from the floor. Small details adorned the room such as a water fountain carved into the wall, niches and fine trim around the tunnel entrances. This was surprisingly well made for a bunker built by unskilled children and designed by a man with no training in either construction or architecture.

A collection of simple mining implements used in the cave’s construction are displayed near the classroom entrance. For some tour guides, these aren’t just artifacts, but the tools they used when they dug this cave as children.

A manually-operated pump to circulate air within the shelter; I imagine there were non-wooden pieces that are no longer present.

Our tour guide explained how the children worked here and the divvying up of responsibilities based on age and gender. Ikeda had a well-thought out plan to make the most of his work force, using the older boys for the digging work, older girls for the refining work and the younger children to remove the debris from the cave. The rock is tuft, a light volcanic rock, which is what made it possible for children to borrow through. A more solid kind would have been more difficult.

There’s a bit of irony in the building of a school cave, as in that in order to continue their education, they had to first set it aside. Construction was the curriculum with a side of morale-boosting propaganda to the fuel their desire to work until they’d “smashed enemies.”

As the guide pointed out, during air raids 600 children and educators would hide out in here. It was cool and damp now, with a light mist permeating the air, but the press of 600 bodies in such tight confines must have been dreadfully warm and near suffocating. That was another issue which was smartly addressed, as farm equipment had been modified to act as manual air pumps to force fresh air into the cave while occupied.

The classroom differs a little from what it was like then. Not because of the lack of chairs or desks, it never had those, but because the floor and walls were covered by boards. The guide pointed out little holes in the walls where they were attached.

Since there was no blackboard teachers provided moral lessons here and occasionally they would watch motivational propaganda films.

The whole school cave is rather compact in design, and after the classroom we moved quicker through the rest. I was impressed the whole time by the quality of the work, as even the late war Matsushiro Daihonei, the last stand bunker intended to house the Emperor and government after Tokyo fell, is a very rough and crudely blasted location.

Mostly complete and functional, only the kitchen and food storage room were never fully realized though they too appear mostly complete. A never used stove was cut into the wall and except for its roughness; the food storage area looked like it could have been used if necessary.

The last point of interest is the escape tunnel, a long stairwell with water trickling down, that lead to the backside of the hill. This was one of the more impressive points as there are a lot of steps leading up to the top. The tunnel acted as both an emergency exit and an air vent. It’s blocked off now so we could only look up and follow the steps until they’d curved and disappeared. Near the entrance was a small sweet potato patch for the children.

After the war Mukyudo served as a first aid station for atomic bomb victims, which I didn’t expect as it’s not very close to Nagasaki and this little village is a bit out of the way. They’d initially feared the U.S. military would think it was a military bunker and destroy it, but thankfully that didn’t happen. For awhile it was also used as a summer classroom. Its last official function before becoming a preserved memorial was in 1994, when Sasebo City used it as an emergency water reservoir during a drought.

There is an English language pamphlet, but the guided tour is only given in Japanese. I recommend visiting this site to anyone in the area as it is a special place with its unique history and purpose. Hopefully this article will help you when visiting if there is no English language material available during your visit.

This wraps up our series on life on the Japanese home front. I learned a lot visiting these places and doing the research. I’d like to think I’ve a better understanding now and appreciation for difficult lives of civilians and the people who had to stay behind while other fought during this period.

Though really, until you’ve experienced these things yourself it’s impossible to fully understand what it’s like to live on the edge. Never knowing if tomorrow is the day your world will be set on fire (or on fire again), if you’ll die or continue living in the ashes. Scrounging for food and hiding it from the government men, sneaking an education because you’re supposed to be building weapons or losing a childhood because your labor is needed, since the laborers, possibly your family and friends, are being sent off to fight. Having to start over when the fighting stops and rebuilding begins.

They didn’t enlist for this. Not everyone even wanted it, yet these are the lives they had to live and it’s important to remember that. It goes for anyone who’s lived through any war.

Mukyudo
Jomamachi, Sasebo 859-3237, Nagasaki Prefecture
81 956-59-2676

The Japanese Homefront Series

The Sasebo Air Raid (Sasebo Peace Museum/Air Raid Reference Room)
Shizue-san the Welder
Sasebo Air Defense Command Center
From Beginning to End (Hario Wireless Transmitting Station and Uragashira Repatriation Center Museum)
Kawatana, Home of Shinyo and the Fish-Shaped Water Bomb
Safe at School (Mukyudo)