Kashima Air Group Seaplane Training Facility (Miho)

 ruins, abandoned / shut down, war memorial

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The Japanese Navy established the Kashima Air Group seaplane training base on Lake Kasumigaura in 1938. On this ground there was the Kashima Naval Air Group seaplane crewmen training base belonging to the former Imperial Japanese Navy. Flight training students who had finished compulsory education of that time or who had volunteered halfway through their junior high school under the old system of education, special reserve flight students who had volunteered while studying at the university, flight students from the Naval Academy, and others were trained here to be superior pilots while receiving instruction in various military subjects applicable to the air group.
After the air group was formed on May 11, 1938, until the war was lost on August 15, 1945, especially after plunging into the Greater East Asia War, the base moved in turn toward defending the Japanese mainland in order to protect beforehand from external attacks. The air group boldly focused on the defensive battle through patrol flights, reconnaissance flights, and interceptor takeoffs. However, with odds against us, there were aircraft that did not return as there were dead and wounded in aerial combat. In the end, there were battle deaths as planes in special attack squadrons dove on enemy warships gathered around Okinawa, and air group members during operations died even on land from machine-gun strafing. The number of noble victims reached several dozen just among members of this Kashima Air Group.