History
Iwakuni Station opened on 25 September 1897 on the privately built San'yō Railway as part of the line's extension from Hiroshima to Tokuyama, in the city of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The San'yō Railway was nationalised in 1906 and the line renamed the San'yō Main Line in 1909. The station was renamed Marifu on 3 February 1929 but reverted to Iwakuni on 1 April 1942. The American firebombing of 14 August 1945 destroyed the station building, and a third-generation structure opened in 1949. Following the 1 April 1987 JNR privatisation the station passed to JR West and JR Freight. A fourth station building elevated above the tracks was inaugurated on 26 November 2017.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
Iwakuni was renamed Marifu in 1929 after the local town, then back to Iwakuni in 1942 — but when the San'yō Main Line was routed via Iwakuni instead of Yanai during the Pacific War, the original Iwakuni Station (today Nishi-Iwakuni) had to give up the name a second time to settle the confusion.