Interest
City Aims to Preserve Naval Facility Seen in In This Corner of the World
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The city of Kure, Hiroshima decided on Friday to aim to preserve Aoyama Club, a former Imperial Japanese Navy facility that appears in Sunao Katabuchi's In This Corner of the World film. The city had been discussing whether to demolish or preserve the building and is now planning to save the facility due to its historical value.
The facility was built in 1936 as an assembly hall for Japan's former navy. The building is also known in Japan for its use by non-commissioned offers of the infamous battleship Yamato. After the end of World War II, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force used the building, but the facility closed last year due to its deterioration.
Kure had been planning to purchase the land and building from the national government. The city was also considering demolishing the entire facility to make a parking lot or preserving only part of the building before it decided to plan to preserve the entire facility. In addition, the city is considering an inspection next year to evaluate the building's resistance to earthquakes.
The city decided on Friday to inform the National Diet of its plan to preserve the building. Because the preservation project would require a large sum of money, Kure is now focusing on bringing its plan to the attention of the Diet.
In This Corner of the World is set in Kure during the final stage of World War II. The town was important during the war and came under attack due to its naval facilities. In the anime's English-subtitled clip below, Suzu watches naval vessels such as Yamato arrive at the town's port.
The award-winning film opened in Japan in November 2016, and Shout! Factory and Funimation Film screened the film in North America last August. In This Corner of the World and four other anime films are among the 26 films submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 90th Academy Awards. The anime is also nominated in the Best Animated Feature-Independent category in this year's Annie Awards.
