Tsuchizaki Air Raid
Tsuchizaki was devastated by an air raid during the closing hours of World War II in 1945. The Nippon Oil refinery located near the port was one of the largest oil refineries in the country, making it a critical target for the United States. Over 250 people were killed and more than 200 injured during the raid and in the subsequent fires, which lasted nearly a week.
The attack began on August 14 around 10:30 p.m. and lasted until the early hours of the following morning. The 315th Bombardment Wing of the US Army Air Forces dropped 12,047 bombs on Tsuchizaki. Most of the 132 planes were Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers, the same type that had been used to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the week before. Less than 12 hours after the attack, Emperor Hirohito (1901–1989) announced Japan’s surrender. It was the final air raid of World War II.
A single warehouse near the oil refinery survived the bombing. When the building was demolished in 2017, some of the damaged reinforced-concrete pillars and ceiling beams were installed at the Tsuchizaki Minato Port Area Historical Museum. The broken and partly melted pillars are a lasting reminder of this tragic history.
