Okayama Air Raid

The raid on Okayama began at 02:43 on 29 June 1945 and lasted until about 04:07. Of roughly 140 B-29s that took off from Tinian, 138 bombed the city, dropping about 890 tons (around 95,000 bombs) of incendiaries, including large oil incendiaries and clusters each scattering 38 smaller bombs.

The attack began before even a preliminary alert had been issued, and according to the MIC account not a single interceptor took off and not a single anti-aircraft gun replied. The prefectural office and city hall burned down. Japanese Wikipedia gives 1,737 dead and 6,026 injured, with 73% of the urban area (7.69 square kilometres) burned; the US assessment was 63%. The MIC page speaks of more than 1,700 dead, more than 6,000 injured who received treatment, over 100,000 people affected, and nearly 70% of the central city burned.

Cultural losses included the keep of Okayama Castle, then a National Treasure, and the buildings of Renjo-ji temple. The city erected the Peace Statue in Nishigawa Green Road Park (1954), a memorial tower for the war-damage dead (1955), the War Damage Monument in Shimoishii Park (1980) and the Statue of Peace in Ishiyama Park (1987).