| Bombing of Nagaoka | |||||||
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| Part of theair raids on Japan during thePacific War | |||||||
 Nagaoka after the 1 August 1945 air raid | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |  Japan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 125 heavy bombers | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 1,486 killed 65.5 to 80 percent of the city destroyed | ||||||
Thebombing of Nagaoka (長岡空襲,Nagaoka kūshū) took place on the night of 1 August 1945, as part of thestrategic bombing air raids on Japan campaign waged by theUnited States against military and civilian targets and population centers in the Japan home islands during the closing stages of thePacific War in 1945. Between 65.5 and 80 percent of the urban area ofNagaoka was destroyed during the war.
Nagaoka was a regional commercial centre and home to one of the laboratories of Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. As of 1945 it had a population of around 67,000.[1] While local lore held that Nagaoka was targeted because it was the hometown of Japanese AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto, who had directed theattack on Pearl Harbor, the presence of the chemical laboratory was more likely the reason the city was targeted.[2]
Nagaoka was attacked for the first time on 26 July 1945.[3] The city was one of ten to be attacked during late July by the United States Army Air Forces'509th Composite Group to practice the tactics the unit later used to conduct theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These raids were conducted by small groups of two to sixBoeing B-29 Superfortress bombers armed withPumpkin bombs.[4] The 509th Composite Group assessed the results of the small attack on Nagaoka as having been "fair".[3]
During the night of 27/28 July B-29s dropped leaflets on Nagaoka and ten other cities which stated that they would be subjected to attack, and that civiliansshould evacuate ahead of the raids. This tactic sought to intensify the psychological effects of the bombing campaign.[5]
The main raid on Nagaoka occurred on 1 August 1945. Commencing at around 10:30 p.m. that night, 125 B-29 Superfortress bombers from the313th Bombardment Wing struck the city with an estimated 163,000 incendiary bombs totaling 925 tons. The raid lasted for 1 hour and 40 minutes.[6][1] The city suffered severe damage, though estimates of its extent vary: in 1953 the USAAF'sofficial history stated that 65.5 percent of Nagaoka's urban area was destroyed, and this figure was also used by historian Richard B. Frank in 2001. However, in 2016The Washington Post reported that 80 percent of Nagaoka had been burnt out.[6][7][1] A total of 1,486 people were killed in Nagaoka, including more than 280 school age children.[6] The American force that attacked Nagaoka did not suffer any casualties.[1]
The cities ofToyama,Mito andHachioki were also attacked on the night of 1/2 August, and suffered severe damage.[6][7]The New York Times reported that the raids that night had included the largest number of bombs dropped up to that time.[6]
In November 1951 a bronze statue was erected at theNagaoka railway station to commemorate the bombing and its victims. Called Heiwa-zo (Statue of Peace), it depicts a goddess with outstretched arms, a little girl with a ball, and a boy reading a book. Hidden in the bosom of the goddess is a copper plate engraved with the names of the schoolchildren who died in the air raid. The statue was moved to the Peace Forest Memorial Park in 1996.[6]
Beginning in 2003, a fireworks display has been held annually on 1 August at 10:30 pm, the time the bombing occurred. Three shiragiku (white chrysanthemum fireworks) are launched "as an offering to the war dead".[6] In 2015 the display featured an additional 2,000 fireworks.[2]
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