Imperial Japanese Naval Academy

All you want to know about Imperial Japanese Naval Academy

The building of Imperial Japanese Naval Academy

The Imperial Japanese Naval Academy (海軍兵学校, Kaigun Heigakkō^?, Short form: 海兵 Kaihei) was a school established to train officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima in 1888. Students studied for three or four years, and upon graduation were commissioned as midshipmen, attaining the rank of ensign after a period of active duty and an overseas cruise. In 1943, a separate school for naval aviation was opened in Iwakuni, and in 1944 another naval aviation school was established in Maizuru. The Academy was closed in 1945, when the Imperial Japanese Navy was abolished. The site now serves as the location for Officer Candidate School of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

I was drafted out of College in Dec 1951. After combat training at Indian Town Gap Pennsylvania, I was shipped on a troopship throughthe Panama Canal and ended up in Sasebo Japan after a 36 day voyage. I was then reassigned for special training on being a records keeper specialist and was sent to Eta Jima school for two months. The buildings were gorgeous. The weather so superb and even. At nights we went "downtown" and met the local Japanese girls whoi were pretty and very nice to us. All in all, Eta Jima represents for me an important occasion in an otherwise ugly world I came to find on the Korean front lines. sent this Sep3rd from Brunswick Maine, by Paul Wade, now age 77