@ 86 days until Hiroshima Summit: Remnants of war on Miyajima Island
Feb. 22, 2023
by Tomohiro Nagai, Staff Writer
The whole of Miyajima Island, located in Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, has been worshiped as an island of gods since ancient times. It is said that even though Itsukushima Shrine was built in 593 in the Asuka era, the island had not been inhabited until the Kamakura era (1185-1333). Although nature on Miyajima Island, with the primeval forest of Mt. Misen as its center, has been protected, the island could not escape war-driven development.
In the Meiji era, several batteries were constructed on the island to protect the strait leading to the military city of Hiroshima and Kure City. The roads built to construct the batteries were also called army roads. Miyajima Tsutsumigaura Nature Park was military land.
Toshiaki Suehara, 69, a chair of a group of park volunteers in Miyajima district that has continued activities to preserve nature and historic sites on the island, said, “Remnants at the former site of the batteries that quietly remain (shown in the photo) are also part of the history of the island.”
(Originally published on February 22, 2023)
The whole of Miyajima Island, located in Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, has been worshiped as an island of gods since ancient times. It is said that even though Itsukushima Shrine was built in 593 in the Asuka era, the island had not been inhabited until the Kamakura era (1185-1333). Although nature on Miyajima Island, with the primeval forest of Mt. Misen as its center, has been protected, the island could not escape war-driven development.
In the Meiji era, several batteries were constructed on the island to protect the strait leading to the military city of Hiroshima and Kure City. The roads built to construct the batteries were also called army roads. Miyajima Tsutsumigaura Nature Park was military land.
Toshiaki Suehara, 69, a chair of a group of park volunteers in Miyajima district that has continued activities to preserve nature and historic sites on the island, said, “Remnants at the former site of the batteries that quietly remain (shown in the photo) are also part of the history of the island.”
(Originally published on February 22, 2023)
