Nagoya Air Raid of 14 May 1945 (Burning of Nagoya Castle)

Nagoya was a centre of Japan's aircraft industry; the Mitsubishi engine works in Higashi Ward alone produced more than 40% of national aero-engine output and was bombed seven times between December 1944 and April 1945. The city was first hit in the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942 and from December 1944 suffered both precision attacks on factories and area incendiary raids. Japanese Wikipedia counts 63 raids; in total 2,579 B-29s came over the city and more than 14,500 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 7,858 people, injuring 10,378 and damaging 135,416 houses.

The raid of 14 May 1945 was one of the largest area attacks: up to 472 B-29s, the largest number sent against Nagoya in a single raid, dropped 2,515 tons of incendiaries on the northern part of the city in daylight. Japanese Wikipedia records 338 dead, 783 injured, 21,905 houses damaged and 66,585 people affected in this raid.

Nagoya Castle caught fire during the attack and its main and small keeps, the Honmaru Palace, the north-east corner turret and the main gate were destroyed. In 1930 the keep had become the first castle designated a National Treasure under the National Treasure Preservation Law. According to testimony quoted by Japanese Wikipedia, scaffolding had been erected to take down the golden shachi roof ornaments for evacuation, and incendiaries entered through windows left open on the top floor of the keep; the golden shachi were lost in the fire. The 1,047 wall and screen paintings of the Honmaru Palace had been moved into storage from autumn 1944 and survived (they are now Important Cultural Properties), as did three corner turrets and three gates.

The keep was rebuilt in steel-framed reinforced concrete and opened on 1 October 1959, and the Honmaru Palace has since been reconstructed in wood (begun 2009, fully opened 8 June 2018). A plan to rebuild the keep in wood has been delayed by questions over preservation of the stone walls and accessibility. In March 2024 the Nagoya city assembly passed an ordinance making 14 May, the day the castle burned, 'Nagoya Peace Day' to mourn the victims of the air raids and pass on the memory of the war; the privately run museum Peace Aichi also exhibits material on the raids.