Location Information
Yokohama War Cemetery is 9 kilometres west of the city centre on Jido-Yuenchi-Dori, Hodogaya Ward, which branches about 300 metres left off the old Tokaido highway. The nearest railway station is Hodogaya, 4 kilometres to the north on the JNR line. JR Hodogaya Station is for the trains running on the Yokosuka Line and some of the Shonan-Shinjuka Line Services. Please note that only trains on these two lines stop at the station. The cemetery is then easily reached by bus from Hodogaya Station.To get to the bus stop leave the railway station at the East exit onto the Tokaido highway. The bus stop is located on the opposite side of the road and visitors can cross the highway by using the pedestrian bridge nearby. To get to the cemetery by bus, the bus route is No.53 and the bus departs every 20 to 30 minutes during it's operating hours. The stop required for the cemetery is called Naga Tadai Kouen Mae. The bus stops about 150 metres from the cemetery entrance which is signposted for the gardens and cemetery. ("El-Renpo-Gun-Bochi" translates locally as "British Commonwealth Cemetery".) If you take a taxi the street address is 238 Karibachō, Hodagaya-Ku, Yokohama 240. Yokohama Post War Plot is situated in Yokohama War cemetery and is reached by going up through the United Kingdom Section, up the steps to the Indian Section and then following a sloping path.
History Information
Established in 1945 to accommodate burials of Commonwealth personnel who died as PoW in Japan or during their service in Japan after the War as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.
The cemetery comprises four main parts; the United Kingdom section, The Australian section, the Canadian and New Zealand section and the Indian Forces 1939-45 section. There is also a post-war section. A Cross of Sacrifice stands in each of the first three sections. Instead of a cross, a specifically designed monument in the form of a pylon dominates plot in the fourth section. In the north wall of this section is also the Yokohama Memorial commemorating those who died while serving with the occupation forces in Japan and for whom no burial or cremation information exists.
In the Australian section of the cemetery there are graves of 277 known and 3 unknown Australians. There are 10 Navy, 250 Army, 8 Air Force and 9 Merchant Navy named graves. Of the 3 unknown Australians, 2 were re-buried at Yokohama from their unmarked resting place on Hainan Island in June 1992.
In the post-war section, 57 Australian servicemen are laid to rest. These include those who gave their lives in the Korean War, some from the occupation forces in Japan and those who died more recently. The grave of Warrant Officer Ray Simpson who won a Victoria Cross in Vietnam, and who subsequently lived in Japan, is in this section.
The cemetery also contains the YOKOHAMA MEMORIAL which commemorates 20 members of the Army of Undivided India and the Royal Indian Air Force who died while serving with the occupation forces in Japan, for whom no burial or cremation information exists. The YOKOHAMA CREMATION MEMORIAL, a shrine which houses an urn containing the ashes of 335 soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Commonwealth, the United States of America and the Netherlands who died as prisoners of war in Japan also stands within the cemetery. Their names (save for 51 who were not identified) are inscribed on the walls of the shrine.
Australian Embassy Japan website
