Nagaoka Air Raid Bombing Center Point Monument

The Nagaoka Air Raid Bombing Center Point Monument (長岡空襲爆撃中心点の碑) stands in Meiji Park (明治公園) in Sakanosue-cho 3-chome, Nagaoka City, marking the precise geographic point that U.S. strategic planners designated as the aiming point for the devastating incendiary raid of August 1, 1945.

In June 1945, American reconnaissance aircraft conducted extensive aerial photography of the Nagaoka urban area. From these photographs, the XXI Bomber Command's intelligence staff created a detailed "litho mosaic" — a photographic map assembled from multiple overlapping aerial images. On this mosaic, they drew a circle with a radius of approximately 4,000 feet (about 1.2 km) encompassing the densely built-up area of central Nagaoka, and designated the center of this circle as the primary aiming point for the incendiary attack. That center point corresponds precisely to the location of Meiji Park.

On the night of August 1, 1945, 125 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 313th Bombardment Wing approached Nagaoka and began their bomb runs using this aiming point. Over approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, they dropped an estimated 163,000 individual M69 napalm incendiary bomblets — delivered in E46 cluster bombs that opened at altitude to scatter the smaller munitions across a wide area — totaling 925 tons. The resulting firestorm consumed about 80% of the city's urban area, killed 1,488 people according to Nagaoka City's count as of 2019 (including some 280–300 schoolchildren), and left central Nagaoka in ashes.

The stone monument was erected on August 1, 2016, the 71st anniversary of the air raid, near the "Meiji Emperor's Imperial Resting Place" (明治天皇御小休所跡) marker already present in the park. The monument is engraved with a reproduction of the actual U.S. military bombing target map (litho mosaic) along with explanatory text in Japanese describing the American targeting methodology.

The monument's location carries additional historical resonance: Meiji Park is immediately adjacent to Yamamoto Memorial Park (山本記念公園), built on the site of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's birthplace. The proximity of the bombing center point to the birthplace of Japan's most famous naval commander — the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack — has led to enduring speculation that the American planners deliberately centered the raid on Yamamoto's hometown as a form of retribution, though official U.S. records indicate the targeting was based on standard industrial and population density criteria.

The monument is part of a network of six officially designated Nagaoka Air Raid historic sites maintained by Nagaoka City, including the Peace Statue in Heiwa no Mori Park, the Kakigawa War Disaster Memorial, the War Victims Memorial Tower at Hirakata Park, the mock atomic bomb (pumpkin bomb) drop site monument near Eidai Bridge, and the War Victims' Grave at Shofuku-ji Temple.