Second Naval Fuel Depot (Yokkaichi)
第二海軍燃料廠
The Second Naval Fuel Depot (第二海軍燃料廠) in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture was Imperial Japan's largest oil refinery, with a daily capacity of 25,000 barrels. Established in 1941 in the Shiohama district, it produced aviation gasoline, liquid fuels, and lubricating oil for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The facility and its associated Utsube River Oil Refinery were ranked first among Japan's aviation fuel production centers by 1945. From June to August 1945, US B-29 bombers of the 315th Bombardment Wing conducted repeated precision raids that destroyed the refinery complex. Yokkaichi itself was firebombed on June 18, 1945, killing 736 civilians. After the war, the site was converted to civilian petrochemical use and became the foundation of the Yokkaichi industrial kombinat.
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History
The Second Naval Fuel Depot (第二海軍燃料廠) was established in April 1941 in the Shiohama district of Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture. Occupying approximately 2.15 million square meters along the coast of Ise Bay, it was the Imperial Japanese Navy's largest petroleum refining facility, with a daily processing capacity of 25,000 barrels — making it the biggest oil refinery in wartime Japan. The depot operated four main factory buildings and produced the bulk of the Navy's liquid fuel and lubricating oil requirements.
The facility's strategic importance made it a prime target for Allied bombing. The associated Utsube River Oil Refinery, located about two miles southeast of central Yokkaichi, was identified by US strategic planners as the number-one center of Japanese aviation gasoline production in 1945. On June 18, 1945, 89 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 313th Bombardment Wing firebombed central Yokkaichi, dropping 11,272 incendiary bombs (567.3 tons) that destroyed 35% of the city, killed 736 civilians, wounded 1,500, and left 47,153 homeless.
Beginning on June 26, 1945, the newly operational 315th Bombardment Wing launched a series of precision night raids specifically targeting the oil refinery complex. In the first attack, 33 B-29s dropped 222.8 tons of bombs by radar, destroying or damaging 30% of the facility. On July 9, 61 B-29s returned with 468.7 tons of ordnance to complete the destruction of the Utsube refinery. Yokkaichi was bombed a total of nine times between June and August 1945, with additional raids on June 22, July 24, July 28, July 30, August 2, and August 8, systematically eliminating the factories and oil infrastructure.
The December 7, 1944 Tonankai Earthquake had already inflicted severe damage on the Second Factory building, and restoration efforts were abandoned by April 1945 as the military situation deteriorated. By war's end, the fuel depot was effectively non-operational. After Japan's surrender, US Army VI Corps occupied the site in October 1945, and administration was transferred to the Mie Prefecture governor on October 26, 1945.
In the postwar period, the former depot grounds were converted to civilian industrial use. By June 1946, part of the facility was producing ammonium sulfate fertilizer. In 1955 the former depot site was sold off to the private sector, and petroleum and petrochemical plants were built on it and the surrounding land. The site became the nucleus of the Yokkaichi petrochemical kombinat — one of Japan's largest industrial complexes — though this same concentration of heavy industry later contributed to the infamous Yokkaichi asthma pollution crisis of the 1960s. Today, virtually no original wartime structures remain above ground, though the massive concrete northern boundary wall — sometimes called the "Wailing Wall" due to machine-gun bullet scars — survives within the Mitsubishi Chemical factory grounds.