The on June 19, 1945, was part of the

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

campaign waged by the United States against military and civilian targets and population centers during the Japan home islands campaign in the closing stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Background

Although the city of

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

lacked major targets of military significance, it was the 15th largest city in Japan per the 1940 census with an estimated population in 1945 of 212,000, and was a major regional commercial center. The

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

railway connecting

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

with

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

also ran through the city.

Air raids

Shizuoka was bombed a total of ten times during World War II. Tactical raids with high explosive bombs were made against a defunct Mitsubishi aircraft engine plant in March, April, May, and on June 7, 1945, a tactical raid by

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...

es caused moderate damage to Shizuoka's industrial areas.
330th Bomb Group Combat Mission Logs On June 19, 1945, 137 B-29 bombers from the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

314th Bombardment Wing launched a major

firebombing Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary d ...

attack on the central part of the city. The bombers attacked in two waves from east and west, so as to trap the population within the center of the city, between the mountains and the sea, dropping 13,211 incendiary bombs. The resultant

firestorm A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...

destroyed most of the city. Shizuoka civil defense measures were crude at best and the city had almost no antiaircraft batteries. Air raid shelters consisted of a hole in the ground next to wooden houses with a wooden roof covered with a thin layer of soil and clay. Due to the high ground water levels in the area, these shelters were shallow, and many people were burned alive in the firestorm. The estimated civilian casualties in the June 19 raid were 1,952 people killed, an estimated 12,000 were severely injured, and 26,891 homes were destroyed. A year after the war, the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific War) The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) was a written report created by a board of experts assembled to produce an impartial assessment of the effects of the Anglo-American strategic bombing of Nazi Germany during the European theatre o ...

reported that 66.1 percent of the city had been totally destroyed. Two B-29s collided mid-air during the operation, resulting in the deaths of 23 Americans. In 2008, a headstone with the names of the fallen Airmen was erected in front of the previous Japanese monument in the city. A joint US-Japan memorial service is held each year at the site on the Saturday closest to the day the crash occurred. The book ''The Blackened Canteen'', by Jerry Yellin, a P-51 pilot, tells the story.

References

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Notes

External links

Pacific War Chronology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shizuoka Shizuoka (city)

Japan in World War II

1945 in Japan History of Shizuoka Prefecture Firebombings in Japan Japan–United States military relations

Background

Air raids

See also

References

Notes

External links