Hario Wireless Tower Near Sasebo City Now Open To The Public

by Armand Vaquer

Above, the three Hario Wireless Towers near  Sasebo City in 2007.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in April 2007, I made a tour of kaiju sites in Kyushu that included Mount Aso Volcano National Park, the Saikai Bridge near Sasebo, Fukuoka Tower and Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. Mount Aso and the Saikai Bridge were featured in the 1956 Toho production, Rodan.

While I was at the Saikai Bridge (that crosses the Hario Straits), I also saw the nearby Hario Wireless Towers.  Those were also shown in Rodan.

Above, the Hario Towers are shown in "Rodan" with one of the Rodans flying in the background.  Toho Co., Ltd.

The Mainichi Daily News reported that one of the three Hario Wireless Towers is now open to the public for tours:

SASEBO, Nagasaki -- One of three antique radio towers here that played a small but important role in the beginning of Japan's war against the United States was opened to visitors on June 9. 

The radio towers, known as the Hario broadcasting station and named an important cultural asset by the government in March, were part of the former Imperial Japanese Navy's communications network, and are thought to have broadcast the code phrase "Niitakayama nobore" ("climb Mount Niitaka") to launch the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

The towers, each 136 meters tall, form a triangle 300 meters on a side with telegraph wires strung between them.

The Hario Wireless Towers and the nearby Saikai Bridge are spotlighted in The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan on page 48.

To read the full Mainichi article, go here. 

Hario Towers of Kyushu

by Armand Vaquer

Above, the Hario Towers in 2007.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese fleet in the mid-Pacific Ocean launched an attack on the navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  This attack ushered in the entry of the United States into World War II.

The order for the attack was transmitted in code (“Climb Mount Niitaka 1208”)  by wireless shortwave radio from the Hario wireless telegraph station near Sasebo, Kyushu.  

The three Hario wireless towers stand at 446 feet.  Construction on the towers began in 1918 and completed in 1922.  The towers were decommissioned in 1997 and are now in the care of the Japanese Coast Guard.

Plans are underway to preserve the towers as cultural assets to teach future generations about World War II.

The towers were shown in Rodan (1956) during a fly-by scene of one of the Rodans (above) and during the aerial chase with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

I visited the area where the towers are located in April 2007 when I went to see the Saikai Bridge (featured in Rodan).  The towers are not far from the bridge (left).

The Hario Towers and Saikai Bridge are spotlighted on page 48 in The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.