Kasai City regional revitalization base facility “sora Kasai” Uzurano Museum

The remains of a 1.2 km long runway in Uzurano-cho, Kasai City, are from an airfield built during wartime, and many other war ruins are dotted around the area and remain to this day.
Kasai City's regional revitalization center, "Sora Kasai," serves as a communication hub for touring these ruins, and the "Uzurano Museum" within it was created as the center of a field museum that conveys the historical facts of the war.

The basic plan for the facility was awarded to a joint venture of three companies, Ooba Co., Ltd., and Iruka Design Group Co., Ltd., who were involved in the design, and our company was mainly in charge of the museum displays. After that, we were awarded the order to produce displays on our own, and it took about six years from planning to completion. Towards completion, after going through a review committee, we worked with many people, including Kasai City, local war history researchers who had been conducting research for many years, preservation societies, supervisory teachers, and a full-scale airplane model production company, to create the facility.

This museum, built on the runway, introduces the short but rich history of Uzurano Airfield, with two full-scale airplane models that are deeply connected to the area as its core displays. We aimed to create a museum unique to Uzurano, taking advantage of the story and local characteristics of the area. The mission of this museum is to weave the memories of this area, leave them in a tangible form, and pass them on, and we hope that it will become a place where people can think about peace and connect with each other.


[Social issues/customer issues/requests]
The challenge was to create an attractive facility that would serve as a field exchange hub worthy of being called the "Kasai City Regional Revitalization Center."
In particular, the role of the museum with displays functions was to be a place to think about peace by mainly displays two full-scale airplane models, as well as historical displays related to Uzurano Airfield and Kasai City. displays method was requested to place emphasis on the content, mainly using video technology, but at the same time, there was also a desire displays actual materials.


【solution】
The greatest attraction of this museum is that displays space is set up on the runway itself, a living witness to history, and the two main displays, full-scale airplane models, are placed on top of it. The "Shiden Kai", which was assembled and test-flew, is placed on the runway, while the "Kansai Type 97 Carrier Attack Aircraft", which took off on a suicide mission, is placed so that it looks as if it is taking off from the runway into the sky. This impressive space combines the runway, sky, architecture, and displays, making this displays unique to Uzurano that makes use of the story that this place and itself have.
displays is divided into two zones, "Technology" and "History," and the space is integrated with a lattice wall between them. By approaching the historical fact of war from two different sides, the aim is to provide an opportunity to think about it from a multifaceted perspective.
The video displays was planned to create a synergistic effect on understanding by combining it with the document displays. In particular, the "Story Wall" presents the history of Uzurano Airfield as four stories, presented as a four-part video that makes the most of the horizontal space. In addition, four document displays were displayed that link to these stories, and each one complements the other. By learning the background of the documents through the video and giving reality to the video through the documents, we aim to create displays that conveys a deeper meaning.
Additionally, by directly incorporating the words of people who lived here, the content expresses the war not just as a past event, but in a way that makes it tangible.


<Our project members>
[Developer] Koichi Morimoto
[Sales/Project Management] Koichi Morimoto
[Planning] Setsuko Nishimura
[design, layout] Tomoyo Tsukiyama
[Production and construction] Takeshi Suezaki, CIC: Yu Oishi, Satoko Hasegawa