Mito Air Raid

After Japan's large cities had been burned out by mid-June 1945, the B-29 force turned to provincial cities. Mito was attacked on 2 August, the same night as Toyama, Hachioji and Nagaoka. The US tactical mission report described Mito as a major service centre on the Joban Line whose urban area supplied labour to the important Hitachi plants nearby. Leaflets warning of raids were dropped over the city on the evening of 31 July.

About 160 B-29s from the Marianas began bombing at 00:31 and continued until 02:16, from altitudes of roughly 3,700-4,600 metres, dropping about 1,145 tons of bombs (about 1,150 tons in other accounts).

The city was reduced to scorched earth. The MIC page states that deaths exceeded 300; the city's 1945 administrative report recorded 10,104 households and 50,605 people affected (about 90% of households and 80% of the population), 242 dead, 144 seriously and 1,149 slightly injured. Cultural losses included the Mito Toshogu shrine, then a designated National Treasure, and the three-storey turret (Gosankai-yagura) of Mito Castle.