Toyama Air Raid Bombing Center Monument "Yume no Seichi"

The Toyama Air Raid Bombing Center Monument "Yume no Seichi" (夢の聖地, Dream Holy Ground) stands at the southeast corner of Toyama Castle Ruins Park (富山城址公園), marking the precise target aiming point designated by the U.S. XXI Bomber Command for the devastating incendiary raid of August 1-2, 1945.

On the night of August 1, 1945 — just five days before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima — 182 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 73rd Bombardment Wing, flying from Saipan, were dispatched against Toyama, with 174 successfully reaching the target. Beginning at 00:36 on August 2, the lead pathfinder aircraft dropped illumination flares directly over the southeast corner of Toyama Castle ruins. Over the next approximately two hours (ending around 02:27), the bombers released 12,740 incendiary devices totaling 1,465 tons — comprising about 4,500 M17 cluster incendiary bombs, 7,800 M47 incendiary bombs, and 300 M19 cluster bombs.

The results were catastrophic: of the 4.87 km² target area, 4.84 km² was destroyed — a destruction rate of 99.5% as reported by the US forces, the highest for any Japanese city subjected to strategic bombing (the figure refers to the planned target area rather than the whole city). Counts of the dead range from 2,275 to about 2,700 depending on the source; roughly 8,000 people were injured, some 25,000 households were burned out, and about 110,000 people (virtually the entire urban population) were left homeless. Fires burned so intensely that they triggered automatic cameras aboard B-29s flying at over 12,000 feet.

Toyama's war industries included aluminium production and the Fujikoshi (不二越) steel works, although the August raid was aimed at the built-up city centre and the factories outside it were largely untouched. The city had also been hit on July 20 and 26 by four "pumpkin bombs" — large conventional bombs with the shape of the Nagasaki atomic bomb, dropped as rehearsals for the atomic missions.

The glass monument at the site features embedded tiles created by local schoolchildren expressing dreams of peace and hope, transforming the epicenter of destruction into a place of renewal. Toyama Castle itself was reconstructed in ferro-concrete in 1954 as a symbol of postwar recovery, now housing the Toyama City Local History Museum.