Aomori Air Raid

Aomori was the prefectural capital and the Honshu terminus of the Seikan ferry to Hokkaido. On 14-15 July 1945 US Navy carrier aircraft had already crippled the ferry fleet. When residents began leaving the city, the prefectural governor warned on 18 July that evacuation violated the Air Defence Law, and the city announced that those not back in their homes by 28 July would lose their rations. On 27 July B-29s dropped leaflets naming Aomori among cities to be bombed; the authorities confiscated them.

On the night of 28 July, 62 B-29s of the US Twentieth Air Force arrived over the city. Bombing began at about 22:37 and lasted until 23:48, roughly 71 minutes. The aircraft dropped 2,186 E48 cluster bombs containing about 83,000 M74 incendiaries, a newly introduced type containing white phosphorus. Fire swept the wooden city: 18,045 houses were destroyed, about 88-90% of the urban area burned, and some 70,000 people were made homeless.

Death-toll figures differ between sources: 731, 994 and 1,018 are all cited, and the inscription on the city's memorial uses 1,018. The memorial "Air Raid and War-Damaged City Aomori" was erected in front of City Hall on 28 July 2005, the 60th anniversary. The city has designated 28 July as Aomori Peace Day, and a citizens' group, the Association to Record the Aomori Air Raid, continues to collect testimony.