Naha's history runs on two tracks: five centuries as the port capital of an independent Ryukyu Kingdom trading with China and Southeast Asia, and eighty-two days in 1945 that erased almost all of it. These three days follow both, from royal tombs to tunnel headquarters.
Ryukyu's capital before Shuri: the 12th-century gusuku of kings Eiso and Satto, with the Yodore royal tombs rebuilt after 1945 shelling. The Yodore-kan museum displays excavated stone sarcophagi and grave goods; 9:00-17:00, closed Mondays.
Built in 1501 by King Sho Shin, this limestone mausoleum held the second Sho dynasty for 400 years: three walled chambers where royal bones were washed and re-interred in ceramic urns. The underground museum documents the 1945 damage. 9:00-18:00.
The 1799 second residence of the Ryukyu kings, built to entertain Chinese investiture envoys: a Chinese-style pond garden, hexagonal Rokkakudo pavilion, arched limestone bridge and a red-tiled wooden palace, all rebuilt from ash after 1945.
A 300-metre survivor of the 16th-century Madama-michi, the royal highway from Shuri down to Naha port. Ryukyuan limestone flags, coral block walls and family turtleback tombs line it; a 200-year-old akagi tree stands in a side hollow.
Some 450 metres of tunnels hand-dug into Tomigusuku hill in 1944, where Rear Admiral Ota Minoru and around 4,000 sailors made their final stand in June 1945. Grenade scars still pit the staff room walls; Ota's farewell telegram is displayed. 8:30-17:00.
Black granite walls fanned toward the cliffs where the battle ended carry 242,000 names — Okinawan civilians, Japanese conscripts, American, British, Korean and Taiwanese dead listed together, without distinction of side. Names are still added each June.
Built over the third surgical cave, where 222 schoolgirls and teachers were mobilised as army nurses in 1945. Most of the 136 who died were killed after the army abruptly dissolved the unit. Each girl's portrait hangs above survivor testimony. 9:00-17:25.
This warren of low arcades grew after the war on the grounds of the Okinawa Women's Normal School the Himeyuri students left in 1945. Around 200 stalls trade vegetables and pork by day, then roll up shutters into standing bars and oden counters at night.
In August 1944 the evacuation ship Tsushima Maru was torpedoed by the USS Bowfin: 1,484 died, 780 of them schoolchildren, and survivors were ordered to keep silent. Their satchels, class photographs and 1997 seabed survey footage are here. 9:00-17:00.
Ryukyu's highest-ranked shrine sits on a coral cliff above the sea, on a rock worshipped as a sacred utaki long before the 1367 shrine was raised. Next door, Gokoku-ji housed Bernard Bettelheim, the first Western missionary in Ryukyu, from 1846.
Built in 1992 from Fuzhou stone by Fuzhou craftsmen to mark 500 years of Ryukyu's tribute trade with China. It sits in Kume, the quarter settled in 1392 by the Thirty-Six Families of Chinese scholars, navigators and shipwrights. Closed Wednesdays.
First raised in 1676, the Confucius hall and its Meirindo school were where Kume's Chinese-descended families trained Ryukyu's diplomats and interpreters. Rebuilt in Matsuyama Park, with stone markers through the lanes showing where their homes stood.