YOKOHAMA
WAR CEMETERY
Japan
Visiting
Information:
The opening times of the
cemetery are 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., including Saturdays, Sundays and all public
holidays, all the year round. Wheelchair access possible via main entrance
Location Information:
Yokohama War Cemetery is 9
kilometres west of the city on Yuenchi-Dori, Hodogaya Ward, which branches left
off the old Tokaido highway. The nearest railway station is Hodogaya, 5
kilometres to the north on the JNR line, but the cemetery is easily reached by
bus from Yokohama station. To get to the cemetery by bus, the route is No.77
from Stand 14 of the bus station (Stop 16 on the route). The stop required is
better known for the Yokohama Botanical Garden, which is in the same park area.
The bus stops about 50 yards short of the entrance and signpost to the gardens
and cemetery. There is an information desk inside Yokohama Station and the staff
are very helpful (they can write out the destination to show to the bus driver).
The Post War Plot is reached by going up through the United Kingdom Section, up
the steps to the Indian Section and then following a sloping path.
Historical Information:
YOKOHAMA WAR CEMETERY was constructed by the Australian War
Graves Group after the Second World War and contains the graves of Commonwealth
servicemen who died in Japan as prisoners of war or with the occupying forces
after the war. It comprises of four main parts; the United Kingdom section, the
Australian section, the Canadian and New Zealand section and the Indian Forces
1939-1945 section. The cemetery contains 1,555 Commonwealth burials and
commemorations of the Second World War, including 53 unidentified burials and a
small number of special memorials to casualties known to be buried in the
cemetery, whose graves could not be precisely located. There is also one First
World War burial and a Dutch war grave. The POST WAR PLOT contains 171 non-war
service and civilian burials. The cemetery also contains the YOKOHAMA MEMORIAL
which commemorates 20 members of the Army of Undivided India and the Royal
Indian Air Force who died while serving with the occupation forces in Japan, for
whom no burial or cremation information exists. The YOKOHAMA CREMATION MEMORIAL,
a shrine which houses an urn containing the ashes of 335 soldiers, sailors and
airmen of the Commonwealth, the United States of America and the Netherlands who
died as prisoners of war in Japan also stands within the cemetery. Their names
(save for 51 who were not identified) are inscribed on the walls of the shrine.
No. of Identified
Casualties: 1675 |
