Yokohama Peace Memorial

The Yokohama Peace Memorial (平和祈念碑) stands at the western end of Odori Park (大通り公園), approximately one minute on foot from Bandoibashi Station on the Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line. It was erected on May 29, 1992 — the 47th anniversary of the Great Yokohama Air Raid — by the Yokohama War Victims Bereaved Families Association (横浜戦災遺族会).

The monument was designed by sculptor Shichiro Yokota (横田七郎). Its distinctive crowning element is a three-dimensional rendering of ancient Chinese bronze-script (金文) characters from the Yin dynasty, expressing the meaning "to pray for world peace with love" (愛をもって世界の平和を祈念する). Bilingual Japanese-English plaques describe the events of May 29, 1945.

On that date, 517 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the XXI Bomber Command, escorted by 101 P-51D Mustang fighters, conducted a daylight incendiary raid on Yokohama beginning at approximately 09:20. In roughly one hour and nine minutes, they dropped 2,570 tons of M-69 incendiary bombs — over 430,000 individual bomblets. The raid destroyed 79,017 buildings, burned out 6.9 square miles (42% of the city area), and killed an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 civilians. Yokohama's central business district, port facilities, and residential neighborhoods were almost completely obliterated.

The interior of the memorial contains granite panels engraved with the names of approximately 1,000 identified victims. It is opened to the public annually on May 29 for a memorial ceremony. Yokohama had originally been listed as a potential target for the atomic bomb but was ultimately spared that fate; Nagasaki was substituted instead.