Heiwa no Mori Park & Peace Statue

Heiwa no Mori Park (平和の森公園, Peace Forest Park) is a memorial park in Honcho 3-chome, central Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, dedicated to preserving the memory of the devastating August 1, 1945 air raid and transmitting a message of peace from Nagaoka to the world.

On the night of August 1, 1945, 125 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 313th Bombardment Wing struck Nagaoka with an estimated 163,000 M69 napalm incendiary bombs totaling 925 tons. The raid lasted approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes (from 22:30 on August 1 to 00:10 on August 2). The firestorm destroyed about 80% of the urban area, killed 1,488 people by Nagaoka City's count as of 2019 — including some 280–300 schoolchildren — injured thousands more, and left the city center a charred wasteland. Nagaoka was the hometown of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, though it remains debated whether this connection influenced the targeting decision.

The park's centerpiece is the Peace Statue (平和像), originally created in 1951 through donations collected from teachers across Niigata Prefecture to honor the young victims. The statue was first installed at JR Nagaoka Station, then relocated to Yugao-yama Park and Meiji Park, before finding its permanent home at Heiwa no Mori Park when the park opened in August 1996. Inside the statue is a copper plate engraved with the "List of Nagaoka War Victims — Students, August 1, 1945," preserving the names of approximately 280 students who perished.

The park was born from grassroots civic action. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the air raid, concerned citizens formed "The Society to Create a Peace Forest" (平和の森を創る会). Through citizen-funded tree plantings and community effort, the park was completed and opened by Nagaoka City in August 1996. Its landscape design by the Kamiyama Yoshiko Landscape Design Institute received both the Japan Architecture and Fine Arts Association Prize and the Nagaoka Urban Landscape Prize.

A notable feature is a second-generation offspring of a Hiroshima survivor aogiri tree (被爆アオギリ二世). The original parasol tree survived the atomic bombing approximately 1.5 km from ground zero, with half its trunk severely burned. The sapling was gifted by Hiroshima City, linking the two cities' shared commitment to peace.

Each year, memorial events are held at the park: the Peace Forest Concert on July 31 and the Peace Prayer Festival on August 1, the anniversary of the air raid. The annual Nagaoka Festival — which began on August 1, 1946 as the Nagaoka Reconstruction Festival, with the fireworks display revived the following year and now featuring the famous "Phoenix" firework — originated as a tribute to the air raid victims.