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== No.2 Sea Fort, The Battleship Island of the East!
No.2 Sea Fort is a large gun battery base island that has been an inaccessible without the government permission for many years.
It was built between mid-Meiji period (1867-1911) and Taisho period (1912-1925).
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was stationed there before WWII, and later the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN, in nearby Yokosuka) used the island as the key spot to protect Tokyo. After WWII it was occupied by Allied Forces, but even after the island was returned to the Japanese government, visitors without government permission were never allowed on the land because of the abandoned military ruins.
The island was cloaked in secrecy for several decades. Finally in 2019, just when Japan changed from the Heisei era to the Reiwa era the long awaited travel agency approved landing tours started.
No.2 Sea Fort was built from scratch. Originally, there were only rocky surfaces and sand on the bottom of the ocean. First, the breakwater had to be created, then a pier to moor the ships and after that, many big rocks were dumped into the ocean to form the island’s foundation. This breakwater was the first known one in Japanese history. The breakwater was originally higher and longer, but was greatly damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake.
As you land on the island from the northside berth, you will see large diamond shaped rocks piled around the pier. They’re called “Kenchi-Ishi [ken-chee-ee-shee]” and were part of the original seawall constructed in Meiji era. This construction technology is based on Japanese castle building. The large rocks are placed, then small stones are packed in between the spaces and hardened with mortar, making the construction very strong and sturdy. With its solid structure, they have survived waves and huge typhoons. Later, this technology was shared with United States of America. You can see how they were built from the northside of lighthouse.
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