Sendai Air Raid Bombing Center Point

The Sendai Air Raid Bombing Center Point (仙台空襲爆撃中心点) is a ground-level bronze plaque installed in December 2021 at the intersection of Chris Road Shopping Arcade (クリスロード商店街) and Higashi-Sanbancho in Aoba Ward, Sendai. It marks the precise location that U.S. military planners designated as the aiming point for the firebombing of Sendai.

The plaque was installed by the Volunteers' Group to Record the Sendai Air Raid (仙台空襲を記録する会), led by Professor Satoshi Ohira of Miyagi Gakuin Women's University. Its inscription reads: "1945.7.10 仙台空襲爆撃中心点" (July 10, 1945 — Sendai Air Raid Bombing Center Point).

Using "Litho Mosaic" target maps, the USAAF designated this intersection — then known as the crossing of Shintemmachō (新伝馬町) and Higashi-Sanbanchō (東三番丁) — as the center of a 1.2-kilometer-radius target zone. On July 10, 1945, 123 B-29 bombers dropped 10,961 incendiary bombs within this radius over approximately two hours, creating a firestorm that consumed the city center.

The plaque is embedded in the pavement near the entrance of the Sakurai Pharmacy building. It is deliberately designed to be walked upon, symbolizing the citizens' wish to "tread firmly upon the foundation of peace" (平和の礎を踏み固める). The location sits in one of Sendai's busiest pedestrian arcades, ensuring that thousands of passersby encounter this historical marker daily.

Set in the pavement of a downtown shopping district, the marker is an unusually accessible reminder of the strategic bombing campaign. Accompanying explanatory panels display aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by U.S. military aircraft showing the city before and after the raid.