Kasanohara Airfield

The airfield was closed following Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. As a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy, its military function ceased with the dissolution of the Japanese Empire's armed forces. The facility was taken over by Allied occupation forces, subsequently dismantled, and the land was repurposed for civilian use.

The site of the former Kasanohara Airfield has been completely redeveloped and shows no visible traces of its original runways or military infrastructure from an aerial view. The land is now used for a variety of civilian purposes, including extensive agricultural land (notably tea plantations and other crops), residential housing, and public facilities. A significant portion of the former airfield is now occupied by the campus of the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya (鹿屋体育大学). While the airfield itself is gone, its history is preserved through several local monuments, including the Kasanohara Special Attack Corps War Monument (笠野原特攻隊戦没者慰霊塔), which commemorates the pilots who died.

Kasanohara Airfield (笠野原飛行場, Kasanohara Hikōjō) was a significant air base for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Constructed around 1943, it was one of several airfields in the Kanoya area, which served as a major naval aviation hub in southern Kyushu. The airfield's primary role was as a training facility for naval aviators and as a forward operating base. Its most somber historical significance is its use as a major staging point for 'kamikaze' (Special Attack Unit) missions during the final year of the war, particularly during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Many young pilots departed from Kasanohara on one-way missions against Allied naval forces. The ICAO code 'JP-2343' is a non-standard, unofficial identifier, likely from a third-party aviation database used to catalog historical airfields, as the site was closed before the modern ICAO system was fully implemented for such facilities.

There are zero plans or prospects for reopening Kasanohara Airfield. The land has been fully repurposed and integrated into the civilian infrastructure of Kanoya for over 75 years. The region's modern aviation needs are served by the nearby Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Kanoya Air Base (ICAO: RJFY) for military operations and the civilian Kagoshima Airport (ICAO: RJFK) for commercial transport.