War Disaster Victims Unclaimed Remains Memorial (Tsutsujigazaki Cemetery)

The War Disaster Victims Unclaimed Remains Memorial (戦災殉難者無縁佛供養碑, Sensai Junnansha Muenbotoke Kuyōhi) stands in the Kofu Municipal Tsutsujigazaki Cemetery (甲府市営つつじが崎霊園), located in the Iwakubo-cho district on the northern outskirts of Kofu City, nestled against the slopes of Mount Atago.

The memorial was erected on August 10, 1959, by the City of Kofu to provide a permanent resting place and memorial for the unclaimed and unidentified remains of victims from the Kofu Air Raid of July 6-7, 1945. In the aftermath of the devastating firebombing — which destroyed 74% of the city and killed 1,127 civilians — many bodies were burned beyond recognition or could not be identified due to the destruction of family records and the displacement of surviving relatives.

According to the stele's inscription, 373 unclaimed bodies were first buried temporarily in Ota-machi Park; they were cremated in April 1950, the remains of 213 were handed over to relatives, and the remaining 140 unclaimed remains (無縁仏, muenbotoke — literally "Buddhas without connections") were kept for about ten years at Daisenji Temple (大泉寺) in Iwakubo-cho, a historic Soto Zen temple associated with the Takeda clan. The inscription itself gives the city's dead as 775, an earlier count than the 1,127 of the 1974 survey. In 1959, the city government arranged for the formal transfer of the remains to the newly designated memorial site at Tsutsujigazaki Cemetery, where the commemorative stele was erected.

The concept of muenbotoke — the spirits of the dead who have no living relatives to perform memorial rites — carries deep significance in Japanese Buddhist tradition. Without proper memorial observances (供養, kuyō), these spirits are believed to be unable to find peace. The establishment of this public memorial ensured that the anonymous victims of the air raid would receive continuing spiritual care from the community.

The Kofu Air Raid struck on the eve of the Tanabata festival, when 131 B-29 bombers from the Mariana Islands unleashed incendiaries, mainly M47 napalm bombs, across the city. The attack lasted approximately two hours (23:47 to 01:48) and exploited the geography of the Kofu Basin — flames spread rapidly through the densely built wooden structures with mountains trapping the heat. The city's residents had wrongly believed they were safe from attack, and many Tokyo evacuees — including authors Osamu Dazai and Masuji Ibuse — had relocated there.

Each year, memorial services are held at the cemetery to honor these anonymous victims. The site serves as a solemn reminder of both the human cost of strategic bombing and the enduring Japanese cultural commitment to caring for all the dead, even those whose names have been lost to history.