Miyaura Sekitan Memorial Park

The Miyaura Pit operated from 1888 to 1968 and produced roughly 40 million tonnes of coal, with Korean and Chinese laborers and Allied prisoners of war among those forced to work here. The site is now a park where the incline shaft entrance, original train platform, and a 31-meter brick chimney built in 1888 still stand intact. The chimney, now a National Tangible Cultural Property, tapers from 4.3 meters at its base to 2.9 meters at the top. A row of metasequoia trees planted nearby belongs to the same species that, after millions of years underground, became the coal these workers extracted.