Kiyohara Airfield

Military Decommissioning. The airfield was abandoned immediately following the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan. As a purpose-built military facility for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, it had no further use after the war and was never converted to civilian use.

The site of the former airfield has been completely redeveloped and is now the Kiyohara Industrial Park (清原工業団地), one of the largest inland industrial complexes in Japan. Development of the park began in the 1970s. The path of the former main runway is now a wide, straight central road (Kiyohara Chuo Dori) that serves the numerous factories and facilities within the park, which include major corporations like Canon, Calbee, and Japan Tobacco. All original airfield infrastructure has been removed, and there are no visible remnants of its past as an airfield.

Kiyohara Airfield, also known as Utsunomiya East Airfield (宇都宮東飛行場), was a secret military airfield constructed by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force between 1944 and 1945. Built during the final, desperate stages of WWII, its primary purpose was to act as a dispersal field for aircraft from the main Utsunomiya Airfield to protect them from intensifying Allied air raids. It was also intended to be a base for training pilots and launching special attack (kamikaze) missions. The airfield's construction was a massive and hasty effort, largely carried out by mobilized labor, including students and local citizens. Due to its late completion and the swift end of the war, it saw little to no significant operational use.

None. The site is fully occupied by a dense and well-established industrial park. Re-establishing an airfield is physically, logistically, and economically impossible due to the extensive industrial infrastructure and privately-owned factories that now cover the entire area.