Fukui War & Earthquake Victims Memorial Tower (Jibo Kannon)

The Fukui War and Earthquake Victims Memorial Tower (福井戦災・震災殉難者慰霊碑塔) stands in the Asuwa West Cemetery Park (足羽山西墓地公園) in the Koyamadani-cho district of Fukui City. It serves as the principal memorial for victims of two catastrophic disasters that struck the city within three years of each other.

The first disaster was the Fukui Air Raid of July 19, 1945. On that night, 127 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the U.S. XXI Bomber Command arrived over Fukui at approximately 23:24. Over the next 81 minutes, they dropped incendiary bombs — 865 tons according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications summary, about 953 tons in local histories — on an area of roughly 1.2 km radius centered just northwest of the Fukui Castle ruins. By the U.S. damage assessment the fire destroyed 84.8% of the built-up area — the third-highest rate among the cities bombed, after Toyama (99.5%) and Numazu (89.5%). According to the city's report for 1945, the raid killed 1,576 people (915 women and 661 men), a further 108 died of their injuries and 6,419 others were injured; 21,992 of the city's 25,691 households were burned out, leaving more than 85,000 people homeless.

During the raid, many civilians who had taken shelter in air raid tunnels were overcome by heat and suffocated. Others who jumped into the castle moat and the Asuwa River to escape the flames perished in overlapping masses — a scene of horror repeatedly described in survivor testimonies.

The second disaster was the Fukui Earthquake of June 28, 1948 — a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the city just three years after the air raid, killing 3,769 people and injuring 22,203. The earthquake was so devastating that it led the Japan Meteorological Agency to establish Seismic Intensity 7 (the maximum level) on its scale.

The memorial tower was erected in November 1961 (Showa 36) with donations from many citizens to console the spirits of victims of both disasters; its explanatory text gives their number as 1,583 for the air raid and 1,627 for the earthquake. Housed within the tower is a Compassionate Mother Kannon statue (慈母観音像), a two-metre figure carved from a single block of zelkova by Tada Mizuho and commissioned in June 1947 by the Fukui Prefecture Religious and Cultural Association (福井県宗教文化協会). The Jibo Kannon — a Buddhist figure symbolizing maternal compassion for the dead — was chosen to represent the overwhelming grief of mothers and families who lost loved ones.

Memorial ceremonies organized by Fukui City and services held by the Jibo Kannon support association take place at the tower. The site is registered as an official civilian war-dead memorial facility by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省).