Etajima is the one place near Hiroshima that no tour company sells. Search the booking platforms and you will find nothing, which reads like a warning and is actually the opposite: the site cannot be packaged because it is an operating military installation, and the only way in is a free guided tour run by the navy itself.
Before the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy here was ranked alongside Annapolis and Britannia as one of the three great naval academies in the world. The academy moved to this island from Tokyo in 1888, reportedly on the theory that cadets would study harder somewhere with fewer distractions. It is still a training school for officers today.
Read this before you go
Etajima does not work like a museum, and turning up with museum expectations is how people waste a day.
You register at the main gate — expect to write down your details, and bring photo ID. The tour runs about ninety minutes, and you should be at the waiting room at least fifteen minutes before the start time.
Call ahead on the day, or have your accommodation call. Tours are cancelled without much notice when the school has ceremonies, exercises or visiting dignitaries, and there is no reliable English page that announces it. This is the single most common way a trip to Etajima goes wrong: two ferries and a bus to find the gate closed.
What the tour covers
Architecturally the site is a straight run through Japan’s modernisation. The cadets’ hall is Meiji-era red brick, imported and laid to a standard that has kept it intact for well over a century. The great auditorium is Taisho-era stone. The reference museum is early Showa. Walking the grounds is walking three consecutive eras of a country deciding what it wanted to be.
The reference museum
This is the part people go quiet in. The Educational Reference Hall holds on the order of sixteen thousand items relating to the former Imperial Navy, with around a thousand on display at a time.
Among them are the final letters written by kamikaze pilots to their families. They are displayed without commentary and they do not require any. Whatever you think about the war, the handwriting of a nineteen-year-old explaining himself to his mother is not an abstraction.
Note that the museum portion of the tour is short — often around half an hour — which is not enough time to read carefully. If something holds you, go back to it rather than completing a full circuit first.
What you will not see
This is a working school. Cadets are training. You will see a fraction of the site, you will not photograph everything, and the guide’s instructions are not suggestions. If that framing bothers you, it is the wrong destination.
Getting there
Etajima sits in Hiroshima Bay and is reached by ferry, most easily from Kure or from Hiroshima’s Ujina port.
Ferries are not frequent. Check the return sailing before you commit to a tour time — this is an island, and the timetable, not your plan, decides when you leave.
The rest of the island
Most visitors treat Etajima as the academy and nothing else, which is a shame given the ferry cost.
Oysters. In winter the island’s restaurants serve them heavily, and there is a working processor where buying a bag gets you a knife and a lesson in opening them. Watching the professionals do it at speed is the part people remember.
Olives. A newer industry — abandoned farmland on the island was replanted with olives, and the oils have won international awards. There is a factory and shop.
Curry, again. Etajima runs its own navy curry programme, separate from the one in Kure, approved by the units based on the island and using local ingredients. The tourist centre facing the academy gate serves it, and sells retort pouches.
Water. The Inland Sea here is calm enough that paddleboarding is a local pastime, with introductory sessions run on the island.
Is it worth the day?
Realistically, Kure is the version of this most travellers should do, and Etajima is for the ones who did Kure and wanted more. If you are already going to Kure, the ferry across is ten minutes and it is worth checking whether the tour times line up.
Frequently asked
- Can you visit the Etajima naval academy?
- Yes, on a free guided tour. Self-guided visiting is not permitted, and the tour is conducted in Japanese.
- Do you need to book?
- Individuals do not need to book, but arrive at least 15 minutes early and call ahead on the day to confirm the tour is running.
- How long does it take?
- About 90 minutes for the tour itself, plus ferry time each way.
- Is there an English tour?
- No. Guiding is in Japanese, though the architecture and the reference museum are legible without it.
- Why is Etajima not on the booking sites?
- Because it is an active Self-Defense Force facility running its own free public tour, not a commercial attraction. There is no product for a platform to sell.
- Can I bring a camera?
- Photography is restricted in parts of the site. Follow the guide’s instructions; assume no unless told otherwise.
Last checked 4 August 2026