Mito Army Airfield

Military Decommissioning after World War II. The airfield was a facility of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, which was dissolved following the surrender of Japan. The site was subsequently requisitioned by Allied occupation forces and later repurposed for civilian industrial and research use.

The site of the former airfield has been completely redeveloped and shows no visible remnants of its past aviation use. The land is now a core part of the Hitachinaka Industrial Park. The primary occupant at the specified coordinates is the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Naka Fusion Institute, a major international nuclear fusion research facility that houses the JT-60SA tokamak. The original airfield grounds have been irreversibly repurposed for high-security research and industrial facilities.

Mito Army Airfield (Mito Rikugun Hikōjō) was a major base for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) during World War II. Established in 1940, its primary role was as the home of the Mito Army Flying School (Mito Rikugun Hikō Gakkō), a key training center for heavy bomber pilots and crews. The school operated various aircraft, most notably heavy bombers like the Type 97 (Ki-21 'Sally'), Type 100 (Ki-49 'Helen'), and the advanced Type 4 (Ki-67 'Peggy'). In the final stages of the war, the airfield was also used to form and train special attack (Kamikaze) units, such as the 'Shichisei' unit, which flew missions from other bases. Due to its military importance as a training and operational base, it was a target for Allied bombing raids.

There are zero plans or prospects for reopening the Mito Army Airfield. The site has been permanently and completely redeveloped. Regional air services for the area are handled by Ibaraki Airport (IATA: IBR, ICAO: RJAH), a joint civil-military airport located approximately 20 km to the southwest, which shares its facilities with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Hyakuri Air Base.