World Peace Pagoda

This 45-meter Theravada Buddhist pagoda on Mt. Kojo overlooking the Kanmon Strait is Japan's only Myanmar temple, built in 1958 by Japanese and Burmese workers to honor the dead of World War II. The idea came from Ichihara Mizumaro, a former Japanese soldier deployed to Burma who wanted to mark the loss of roughly 180,000 Japanese who died there and were never repatriated. Construction costs were split between a Burmese Buddhist council and donations from the local Moji community. At least three Theravada monks from Myanmar live here at all times, and inside the altar stand 50 mortuary tablets alongside a plain rock from a Burmese beach.