Heiwa-dōri (Peace Avenue)

Heiwa-dōri (平和通り, "Peace Avenue") is a symbolic reconstruction road stretching approximately one kilometer from JR Hitachi Station westward to National Route 6 in central Hitachi City. The avenue was opened in 1951 during the city's postwar rebuilding, with cherry trees planted along it, as a living memorial to the devastating attacks of summer 1945.

Hitachi suffered one of the most concentrated destruction campaigns against any Japanese city in the final weeks of the war. On the night of July 17–18, 1945, the Allied Third Fleet's battleship force (six battleships including USS Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Alabama, and HMS King George V) fired about 870 16-inch shells at factories in the Taga district and several hundred more at plants in neighbouring Katsuta; most of the Taga shells fell on residential areas, killing 317 people and destroying hundreds of homes. On the night of July 19–20, 127 B-29 Superfortresses dropped incendiary bombs that burned out most of the city centre, killing 143. A further B-29 raid followed on July 26. Together with the B-29 raid of June 10 on the Hitachi Works, whose death toll is put at between about 900 and 1,275, these attacks killed well over 1,500 people.

From the ashes of this destruction, Hitachi's citizens rebuilt their city and named this central avenue "Peace Avenue" as a statement of their determination never to repeat the tragedy. Approximately 120 Somei Yoshino cherry trees were planted along both sides, and the avenue, together with Kamine Park, has since been selected as one of Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Viewing Spots (日本さくら名所100選). Each spring, the blossoming trees draw visitors from across the Kanto region, transforming a site of wartime devastation into a celebration of life and renewal.

The avenue serves as the main axis of the reconstructed city center, connecting the station directly to the commercial district along National Route 6, embodying the urban planning principles of Japan's postwar reconstruction era.