Yushukan Museum

A comprehensive journey through the history of Japan’s military. It’s well-dated and comes with English translations. 1000 yen for Adults. There are some reviews criticizing the way certain historical moments are described. In the museum there is a small paragraph on the “mistakes” made in Nanking where it’s claimed that the military leaders of Japan did acknowledge the wrongdoing of their subordinates. The information could be more reflective on what happened but I would say this is standard practice for countries on the “losing” side. For example, I am American and many museums here do not fully account what actually occurred in places like Vietnam or the Middle East, possibly out of respect for those who lost their lives during the conflicts. In general from my travels around Japan they don’t seem ashamed of their Imperial period at all. There is imperial memorabilia in the gift shop. Is this right or wrong? That is your personal opinion. Initially there is a room with several well preserved Samurai outfit and swords for viewing . The museum information begins with the struggle between the shogunate and Emperor. This led to power returning to the Emperor and the birth of a national, centralized military. There is lots of information on the Sino-Japanese conflicts and Manchuria conflicts that I feel is not well-known outside of the sphere. There is a room with information about the Royal family during the Wars until present day, starting with Emperor Meiji and ending with the current Emperor. Has information on their Empresses also. The tour ends with a large showroom of machinery from the time period. The gift shop has pins of planes, tanks and warships used during the time, along with some Imperial memorabilia. The shrine next to the museum is dedicated to the soldiers lost during the conflicts. I enjoyed my time and visited twice.

On 1 August 2025, we decided to explore one of the city’s most fascinating and often debated cultural landmarks — the Yūshūkan Museum. As two visitors from Malaysia, stepping into this museum meant stepping into a world where history, remembrance and national pride all converge. The museum first opened its doors in 1882, making it Japan’s oldest military museum. Over the years it has been rebuilt and expanded, most notably after World War II and again in 2002, when it underwent significant modernization. Its stated mission is to honor those who fought for Japan from the Meiji Restoration through World War II. Yet what makes Yūshūkan unique is not just its impressive collection of artifacts, but also its perspective. Exhibits highlight the courage and sacrifice of Japanese soldiers while often avoiding detailed discussion of the war’s darker consequences. The ground floor immediately sets the tone with a dramatic centerpiece: the Mitsubishi Zero fighter aircraft. To see this legendary plane up close was extraordinary. Its sleek frame, once the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy, reminded us why it was both feared and admired during the Pacific War. Moving further in, we encountered the C56 steam locomotive that once ran on the infamous Thai–Burma Railway. For us Malaysians, this exhibit had a powerful resonance. Known as the “Death Railway,” the line was built through forced labor and claimed thousands of lives. The museum presents the locomotive as part of engineering history, but standing before it, we could not help but reflect on the immense suffering that lay behind its operation. Outside in the covered portico, the focus shifts to artillery. The Model 89 15cm cannon and the Model 96 howitzer stood as imposing examples of Japan’s wartime firepower. These weapons were used in the defense of Okinawa and other late-war battles. The Grand Exhibition Hall on the same floor expanded the scope further. Tanks, naval guns, torpedoes and experimental weapons such as the Ohka suicide aircraft and the Shin’yō motor boat filled the space. Upstairs, the emphasis shifted from machines to people. The second floor opened with galleries tracing Japan’s rise as a modern power through the Meiji and Russo-Japanese Wars. Photographs, medals, and campaign maps charted how Japan emerged onto the global stage. The transition into the Pacific War exhibits introduced glass cases filled with rifles, swords, uniforms and regimental flags. Among these, the swords stood out most vividly, beautifully crafted and symbolic of how samurai traditions carried into modern military life. The most poignant section, however, was the gallery of farewell letters and portraits. Many young soldiers wrote final notes to their families before leaving for battle. Even without fully understanding the Japanese language, the emotion was unmistakable. These letters humanized the war in a way that the tanks and planes downstairs could not. As Malaysians, our reflections were layered. We admired the craftsmanship, the engineering brilliance, and the preservation of history on display. Yet we also remembered how these same weapons and soldiers once marched through Southeast Asia, leaving a legacy that is still remembered in our part of the world. Yūshūkan’s narrative emphasizes heroism and sacrifice, often minimizing the costs of war, but this contrast actually made our visit richer. It reminded us how history is never one story, but many, depending on where you stand. Tickets cost JPY1,000 for adults. From the grandeur of the Zero fighter in the lobby to the intimate poignancy of soldiers’ letters upstairs, the museum offered a powerful journey through Japan’s modern military history. It was not just about weapons or battles; it was about memory, identity, and how a nation chooses to honor its past. For us, it was an enriching experience — one that deepened our understanding of Japan, while reminding us of the shared and often painful history of our region.

Very recommended to visit . If you like history. You can take pictures everywhere. But not the pictures of the fallen soldiers there is a room with thousands of there pictures. It’s sad because at the end of the day there was a mother that cried for her son. Behaving politely and with respect not only honors others but also reflects positively on your own character and self-worth.

This was a very interesting experience to say the least. Being an American, I mainly went to see the other side of the war, and came away a bit surprised and confused as to the omission of certain details and information from their exhibits. War makes animals out of all of us, but this is why it’s very important to not omit, hide, or revise certain historical details, so that future generations learn not to repeat the same mistakes. Aside from that exhibit, the inclusion of artifacts, photos, and information from Japan’s history was utterly fascinating and definitely makes the museum worthy of a visit at least once. The merch shop has a lot of cool things for sale, as well.

A propaganda and revisionist museum, which I would rather expect in Russia or North Korea or other countries with totalitarian regimes. The information here is misleading, false or deliberately omitted. And the displayed artefacts and war technology is impressive at first glance, but to show it like this with admiration and without the slightest self-reflection is shocking, especially in this time, when we consider Japan to be a democratic and developed country.

A great collection of Japanese War history spanning many hundreds of years. The cost is about 1000 yes per adult. All of the information is in Japanese and English, very helpful. Some amazing and well preserved displays. Well worth a visit if you have time.

If you want to see a good example of historical revisionism this museum takes the cake. I’ve visited museums in several Communist countries where they take a “creative” view on history; Yushukan is similar. On the bright side you get to see an intact Mitsubishi Zero, one of the truly iconic historical aircraft; also a midget submarine and other Japanese military equipment. But the complete lack of accountability for their war crimes is a bit much. As an American I can hardly criticize any country for warmongering or historical revisionism, but if I were Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian etc I would have been highly offended. Japan is portrayed as a “liberator” of Asian people. Almost laughable but surely many Japanese must believe this drivel if this is the perspective they’re given. No mention of the Rape of Nanking or the many other atrocities committed in China; there’s a 🚂 from the Thai-Burma railway but no mention of the tens of thousands of POWs who died in appalling conditions to build it, 90% of whom were fellow Asians the Japanese supposedly “liberated.” Watch or read The Narrow Road to the Deep North to get a small sense of what it took to build. The end of the exhibition memorializes a number of Class A war criminals who committed suicide or were executed after the war, with no mention of the atrocities they committed, rather signs saying they “died for their nation.” The first half of the exhibit about Japan’s Meiji restoration as a response to Western gunboat diplomacy isn’t bad but by the time it gets to the 1894 Sino-Japanese war it becomes more fanciful fiction than anything else. I gave it 2 ⭐️ simply because there are some cool samurai swords and some rarely seen military hardware. But anyone who’s knowledgeable about 20th century history will be left choking on your own laughter and bile. It’s situated next to a shrine where many of the aforementioned war criminals are venerated, from my casual observation, seemingly by many ordinary Japanese people. I suppose it makes sense if this is the kind of “history” they’re being fed

Visited this museum in Tokyo since it is the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan. The museum presents a historical string of events from the years of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji restoration to the First-Sino Japanese war, to the Russo-Japanese War to the First World War and ultimately the Second World War. The events are presented and portrayed from a very Japan centric/ militaristic centric perspective where Japan is portrayed as the victims in every scenario and being forcefully dragged into each of the wars. The museum presents a version of history that is contradictory to the version that is widely acknowledged by the rest of the world. Japan is always the victim in this museum, while the rest of the world is at fault, there is also little to no mention of Japanese brutality and death tolls that it displayed in China, Korea and the rest of South East Asia. While the museum shows the trains used in the Thai-Burma death railway, it failed to mentioned how POWs were used to build it, the brutality that they were treated by the Japanese, and their death tolls. Japan portrayed its victory over Russia as 臥薪嘗膽 or enduring hardships, while it was clear that Japan was in conflict with Tsarist Russia over influence in the far east: with Korea and China. It can be said that this conflict extended into the Japanese and Soviet border incursions in Manchuria. Japan praised its “orderly conduct” amongst the eight nation alliance during the boxer rebellion, while it was clear that Japanese troops were also implicated in the systematic looting and destruction of property in Qing dynasty Beijing. In the museum, Japan is portrayed as being dragged into the conflict with China, with the military engaging with Chinese forces over Manchuria. We understand that the Japanese military used a supposed sabotage operation and started its war in China, and in fact, Japan did not see China as its equal. Japan is also seen as an inspiration for Asian independence movements following its victory in the Russo-Japanese war. Japan’s victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese shattered the image of the “invincible whites”, and it showered to the people living in the South East Asian colonies that the western powers would not protect them in the event of an invasion, and these two factors led to the acceleration of the independence movements. If this museum presents a version of history that the Japanese government wishes to portray, that I fear of the rise of militarism in Japan once again. May the truth prevail, and may peace be everlasting.

The Yushukan war museum is located within the Yasakuni shrine and covers the military history of Imperial Japan from the Meiji Restoration of the mid 1800's to the end of WWII. The shrine is dedicated to the souls of all the soldiers, sailors and pilots that died in the service of the emperor during Japan's militaristic rise and fall. The controversy of the museum is in its revisionist view during that period and the inclusion of men convicted of war crimes in post-WWII. I came to see the historical artifacts that are rarely seem at other museums throughout the world and to see the Japanese view. Most of the exhibits concerning the early Imperial period is in Japanese that I wasn't able to read and photos are prohibited in these areas. From the early 20th century, the Russo-Japanese and Sino-Japanese wars were viewed as great victories for Imperial Japan, including Pearl Harbor in 1941. A whole room is dedicated to the attack on the US Hawaii base. The following defeats from the Battle of Midway in 1942 and forward, had much smaller coverage. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were barely acknowledged with 6"x6" writeups. I did enjoy seeing the many artifacts in the entrance hall, including the well restored A6M Zero fighter, that was the scourge of the Pacific before later American planes made it obsolete. In the main exhibit, is a rare D4Y Suisei dive bomber that was discovered in the jungles of Yap island and restored to museum quality in the 1980's. What bothered me are the artifacts that are clearly suicide attack machines used for kamikaze missions, like the Ohka, Kaiten torpedo and attack boats that required human sacrifice, all the way up to the battleship Yamato with over 3000 men, sacrificed in a pointless attack. I cannot understand the fanaticism that is required to do that. Overall the museum is rather small and I was able to cross it off my bucket list. Entrance fee is ¥1000 for adults and ¥500 for students, payable at the ticket kiosk in the entrance hall.

War is an ugly reality of this life. I hate war. But it is a reality of our history and what has shaped many people groups today. I've visited many war museums all over the world and this one will definitely bring a sense of sadness over you when you visit it. One can definitely see that the Japanese have a lot of patriotic pride and love for their country. Reading the letters of the soldiers to their wives and children before dying in combat brought tears to my eyes. They are on display in the glass near the end of the tour. They were regular human people just like everyone else. Many have labeled the Japanese to be barbaric and sadistic in their practice of warfare. But after touring the entire museum one can NOT justify some of their war crimes from WW2 but one can have a better understanding. They too suffered and simply wanted to live in peace and live out their traditions throughout their history (Samurai era) when the Europeans and others provoked them. They fought many defensive wars in their history. The museum does a good job in showing the Japanese codes of honor, their fighting spirit and love for country above all else. It also shows (surprisingly) the blunders and mistakes they made in some wars. It also has a good display of some of their weapons like swords, guns and some heavy weaponry like tanks and model carriers and destroyers. When I say model I mean small like car models. The entire tour takes you from the beginning of the first emperor and Samurai era all the way to the end of WW2. The museum is hard to find. There are no subway lines nearby. We had to walk about 15 min to get there from the subway. It is inexpensive to go in. Only 500 Yen for students. If you like reading and learning about war history this is one museum to visit.

We didn't know what to expect visiting this museum as it was a last minute decision on our final day in Tokyo. The museum is not near any subway station and requires about a ten minute walk to reach it from the closest one we found in Ichigaya. We had trouble finding it as we came in from the backside with minimal signage. We ended up asking a police officer for help when we knew we were close. Whatever expectations we may have had were greatly exceeded by this place. The displays and exhibits describing past Japanese conflicts were extremely well done, informative and at times moving. A good number of signs and stories were presented in several languages including English. Picture taking is only permitted on the first floor lobby but that's probably a good thing as it would interfere with the experience for everyone. They provide several visitation routes based upon how much time you have. We ended up spending 90 minutes there but could have stayed longer if not pressed for time. The end of the tour has pictures honoring hundreds to thousands of their war heroes along with mementos and letters. Getting a different perspective of World War II was enlightening for us.

Shrine was pretty cool. We met this vietnam war vet, he was a big fan of america, it was kind of an awkward conversation, but he was a super nice guy. We didn't see the full museum, but the stuff in the lobby was super cool.