Gusuku-yama (Ie-jima Tacchu)

The peak sticks straight up out of an otherwise flat island, and from the top you look over the whole of Ie-jima and across the strait to the Motobu Peninsula. The climb is short and steep. Gusuku-yama is a prefecturally designated scenic site.

East of the trailhead stands Gusuku-yama Utaki, which is sacred to the island, so walk past it quietly and stay out of the grove. The Japanese army fortified the hill in the Second World War, and the fighting on Ie-jima in April 1945 killed about 1,500 islanders, roughly half the population at the time, in about six days.