Kobe Air Raids Monument of Life and Peace

The monument "We Will Not Forget the Kobe Air Raids — Monument of Life and Peace" stands in Okurayama Park in Chuo Ward, Kobe. It was dedicated on 15 August 2013 by the citizens' Association for Recording the Kobe Air Raids (Kobe Kushu o Kiroku suru Kai) to mourn those killed in the raids and to preserve their names.

Between January and August 1945 the Kobe area was attacked from the air more than a hundred times. The largest raids came on 4 February, 17 March, 11 May and 5 June. The 4 February attack is regarded as an American trial of incendiary bombing against a Japanese city; the night raid of 16–17 March burned out the western districts such as Hyogo and Nagata; the 11 May raid targeted factories in the eastern Nada area; and the 5 June raid destroyed eastern Kobe and neighbouring towns. About 530,000 people were made homeless and more than 140,000 dwellings were destroyed. Sources disagree on the death toll: official records give 7,491, the figure is commonly put at over 8,000, and the 8,841 dead and 21 percent of the city destroyed cited in earlier versions of this entry are attributed there to the raid of 16–17 March.

The monument is the result of decades of work by the association, founded in 1971, which has collected the names of the dead. It bore 1,752 names when unveiled, and names have been added each year as research continues; by June 2020 the total had reached 2,191.

An earlier memorial to the victims was erected in 1975 at Yakusenji Temple in Hyogo Ward, where a joint memorial service is held every 17 March. The Okurayama monument is distinctive for placing names at its centre, restoring individuality to people long remembered only as a number.