Utsunomiya Air Raid

Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture, grew into a 'military city' after the headquarters of the Army's 14th Division was placed there following the Russo-Japanese War. War plants such as Nakajima Aircraft and Kanto Kogyo and Army airfields stood in and around the city, and more than 10,000 troops were stationed there. On 10 July 1945 carrier aircraft strafed the nearby airfields, killing about five people.

The great raid began at 11:19 p.m. on 12 July 1945 and ended at 1:39 a.m. on 13 July. It was flown by B-29s of the 58th Bombardment Wing, XXI Bomber Command, which had taken off from Tinian that evening; Japanese Wikipedia gives 133 aircraft while noting that some sources say 120. The aiming area was a circle of 1.2 kilometres radius centred on Utsunomiya Municipal Chuo Elementary School, that is, the residential and commercial centre rather than specific military targets. The bombers dropped 10,500 E46 cluster incendiaries and 2,204 M47 incendiary bombs, 802.9 tons in all.

Japanese Wikipedia gives 628 dead, about 1,150 injured, 9,490 houses burned, and 10,603 households and 47,976 people affected, with about 65 percent of the urban area damaged; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications record speaks of more than 620 dead. Utsunomiya and its surroundings were attacked several more times by carrier aircraft and fighters: strafing on 28 July killed five mobilised middle-school students at a factory and 31 people at Koganei Station, and attacks on 30 July and 13 August each killed about ten.

A large ginkgo tree in Asahi-cho that was scorched in the raid and sprouted again in the spring of 1946 is treasured as a symbol of the city's recovery. Memorial events are held in the city each year around the anniversary of the raid.