Great Yokohama Air Raid

Yokohama had been bombed on several earlier occasions, including during the Doolittle Raid of 1942 and the Tokyo-area raids of April and May 1945, but its centre had not yet suffered a large-scale incendiary attack. Japanese Wikipedia notes that the city had been among the candidate targets for the atomic bomb, and so was spared heavy bombing, until it was dropped from the list on 28 May 1945; the raid followed the next day.

The attack of 29 May was a daylight raid: 517 B-29s escorted by 101 (about 100) P-51 fighters from Iwo Jima arrived over the city at about 9:20 a.m. The aiming points were Higashi-Kanagawa Station, Hiranuma Bridge, Yokohama City Hall, Hie Shrine and Otori Elementary School. In a little over an hour roughly 440,000 incendiary bombs, 2,570 tons in all, were dropped on the densely built central and residential districts, including what are now Naka, Minami, Nishi and Kanagawa wards. Japanese Wikipedia records seven B-29s shot down and 175 damaged.

Most of the urban area was burned out and nearly half the population was affected. According to figures used by the City of Yokohama, 3,650 people were killed and more than 300,000 were made homeless. Researchers and citizens' groups have argued that the real number of deaths was considerably higher, with estimates of 8,000 or more and up to about 10,000. Because the raid came during the morning working and school hours, many people were caught around stations, bridges and railway viaducts before they could take shelter.

After the surrender, much of central Yokohama and its port was requisitioned by the Occupation forces, which delayed reconstruction. Memorials to the victims include the monument and ossuary at Mitsuzawa cemetery, the Kogane Jizo at Fumon-in, and the peace memorial in Odori Park; citizens' groups hold commemorative events around 29 May each year.