Okayama Air Raid Exhibition Room

The Okayama Air Raid Exhibition Room (岡山空襲展示室) occupies the 5th floor of the Okayama City Museum (岡山シティミュージアム), housed in the Ritt City Building South Wing directly adjacent to the west exit of JR Okayama Station. The exhibition serves as the city's primary institution for preserving and transmitting the memory of the Okayama Air Raid of June 29, 1945.

In the early hours of June 29, 1945, approximately 138 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the U.S. XXI Bomber Command launched from Tinian in the Mariana Islands struck Okayama as part of a coordinated multi-city incendiary attack that also targeted Moji, Nobeoka, and Sasebo. The raid began at 02:43 and lasted until approximately 04:07. The bombers dropped roughly 890 tons (approximately 95,000 individual devices) of incendiary munitions comprising two types: large oil-gel incendiary bombs (AN-M47-A2) designed for blast and fire effect, and small cluster incendiary bombs (AN-E48, each dispersing 38 AN-M74 bomblets) laced with white phosphorus to maximize casualties.

No air-raid warning was issued, making the attack a complete surprise. The resulting firestorm consumed 73% of the city's built-up area, killing 1,737 civilians, injuring over 6,000, and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Among the cultural losses, the original tenshu (main keep) of Okayama Castle — designated a National Treasure (equivalent to present-day Important Cultural Property) and completed in 1597 — was burned to the ground along with the Rensho-ji Temple hall and other medieval to early-modern structures.

Okayama was the 31st city on a U.S. strategic target list of 180 medium-to-small Japanese cities selected for incendiary attack after the major metropolitan centers had been devastated. USAAF target analysis noted a population density of approximately 50,000 per square mile in the urban core, with buildings predominantly of wood and plaster construction and no adequate firebreaks — conditions ideal for firebombing.

The exhibition displays actual incendiary bomb fragments and specimens recovered from the city, original USAAF mission planning documents and aerial photographs, pre- and post-raid reconnaissance imagery, a scale model of wartime Okayama, and video recordings of survivor testimonies. The exhibition also conducts ongoing oral history collection from aging survivors. Admission is free. The Okayama City Museum additionally hosts an annual "Okayama War Disaster Records and Photography Exhibition" — the 48th edition in 2025 was themed "80 Years After the War: Air Raids and Occupation — Origins of Recovery and Development."

Notably, the acclaimed animation director Isao Takahata (co-founder of Studio Ghibli) survived the Okayama air raid as a nine-year-old boy. His firsthand experience of fleeing through burning streets profoundly influenced his artistic depictions of wartime destruction.