Kawasaki Great Air Raid Site

川崎大空襲跡

Site of the devastating April 15, 1945 firebombing of Kawasaki, a critical Keihin Industrial Zone city. B-29 bombers dropped napalm incendiary bombs destroying 37% of the urban area (9.3 km²); the US Strategic Bombing Survey recorded 1,520 dead and 8,759 injured in Kawasaki's air raids, while the city's own reconstruction record gives 768 dead. Kawasaki was targeted for its concentration of war-essential heavy and chemical industries including NKK Steel (now JFE), Toshiba, and Nippon Oil facilities.

Prefecture

Kanagawa

City

Kawasaki

Region

Kanto

Significance

Major

Today

Rebuilt

Access

Open To The Public

Location accuracy

Approximate

Period

1942–1945

Images

History

Kawasaki, situated between Tokyo and Yokohama along Tokyo Bay, was one of Japan's most important industrial cities during World War II. The eastern coastal district formed a core segment of the Keihin Industrial Zone (京浜工業地帯), Japan's largest and most productive heavy industrial corridor. Major war-essential factories included NKK (Nihon Kokan, now JFE Steel) steelworks, Toshiba manufacturing plants, Nippon Oil refineries, and numerous chemical and munitions facilities.

The city first came under aerial attack during the Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, when B-25 bombers launched from USS Hornet struck targets in the Tokyo-Kawasaki-Yokohama corridor. However, the most devastating attack came on April 15, 1945, when a force of more than 200 B-29 Superfortress bombers from the XXI Bomber Command conducted a nighttime low-altitude incendiary raid on the city. The bombers dropped massive quantities of M-69 napalm incendiary bombs, igniting firestorms that swept through Kawasaki's densely built residential and commercial districts.

The April 15 raid destroyed approximately 37% of the city's urban area, burning 9.3 square kilometers. Casualty figures for Kawasaki's air raids differ by source: the US Strategic Bombing Survey recorded 1,520 killed and 8,759 wounded, while the city's reconstruction record (川崎戦災復興誌) gives 768 killed and about 15,000 injured; most of these casualties resulted from this raid. Large parts of the area around Kawasaki Station and the industrial port district were completely leveled. Two subsequent raids in the following months inflicted further damage.

Today, the Kawasaki Peace Museum (川崎市平和館), established in 1992 in Nakahara Ward, serves as the primary memorial and educational institution documenting the air raids. The museum's permanent exhibitions cover "Japan and War," "War and Humans," and "Another Kind of War." Near Kawasaki Station, the Akarenga Soko (Red Brick Warehouse) ruins — remnants of a 1911 railway substation warehouse that survived both the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the 1945 firebombing — stand as a preserved monument at Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, bearing physical witness to the city's wartime destruction.

Kawasaki was rebuilt rapidly in the postwar era, becoming one of Japan's leading industrial cities once again. The Keihin Industrial Zone continues to operate today with successor companies including JFE Steel, ENEOS, Fujitsu, and NEC maintaining major facilities in the city.