Modern Warfare in the Old Capital

Hidden Air Raids

Left: A homemade memorial of bomb shrapnel from the 1945 air raid on Kamigyō Ward. Right: Survivors of the Nishijin air raid, the Oshibas, stand in the wreckage of their home.Kyoto Air Raid Memorial Society (1974)

Modern Warfare in the Old Capital Home

In the "City Untouched by War," it may be a surprise to find memorials tucked away off the tourist path commemorating victims of air raids. In the final two years of the Asia-Pacific War, fire bombings devastated the nearby industrial cities of Osaka and Nagoya; while Kyoto suffered relatively few air raid casualties, it did experience three separate arbitrary attacks by wayward aircraft that had become separated from their squadrons.

These attacks pale in comparison to the destruction seen elsewhere in the country: for example, in one night of bombing on March 10 1945, 100,000 people were killed in Tokyo (see the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage). Nonetheless, as a result of the Kyoto air raids, 92 people were killed, up to 352 were injured and thousands were made homeless (Kyoto Air Raid Memorial Society 1974; Moxham 2023). The victims of the air raids were soon forgotten in the postwar, with survivors receiving little aid from authorities and having to document their own place in history. This section builds on survivors' work in the little-published, yet thorough, Kakusareteita kūshū (かくされてい空襲, Hidden Air Raids), the product of the Kyoto Air Raid Memorial Society, translated here by the author.

The memorials are shown below.

Kamigyō Memorial

Erected: 15 July 2005, by Kushū hisai o kiroku suru hi no konryuīn kai (Air Raid Damage Memorial Society)

Where: Waraku Park, 116-3 Nishitatsumicho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto, 602-8107

Umamachi Memorial

Erected: 17 January 2014 by Umamachi kūshū kataritsugu kai (Handing Down the Umamachi Air Raid Society)

Where: 470-4 Tokiwacho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0874

Nagaokakyō Memorial

Erected: 19 January 1989 by Nagaokakyō-shi (Nagaokakyō Council)

Where: Nagaokakyō Station (East exit), 1 Chome-13 Higashikotari, Nagaokakyo, Kyoto 617-0832

All memorial photographs by author (June 2018)

The Hidden Air Raids (1944–1945)

Map detailing where 7 bombs fell in Kamigyō ward. Hidden Air Raids (1974)

Kamigyō Air Raid

When: 26 June 1945

Casualties: 50 killed, 66-300 injured, in total 850 affected

Damage: 71 homes destroyed, 84 partially destroyed, 137 damaged

The Kamigyō (上京) air raid, colloquially known as the Nishijin (西陣) air raid after the larger district encompassing Kamigyō, was the most devastating bombing of Kyoto. At 9:30am, a formation of B-29 bombers flew over the Kansai region, whereupon one bomber dropped seven bombs on the Kyoto neighbourhood just west of the imperial palace grounds. 292 homes were either damaged or destroyed, affecting 850 citizens. Historians have argued that Kamigyō was not the intended target of the bombers, but rather an arbitrary tragedy of war as they likely dropped their remaining payload after being separated from their squadron during an attack on a nearby industrial city (Cary 1975). Even so, the damage was severe.

Hori Hidekazu (堀英一) recalled the moment the bombs struck in the quotation below.

"Soon after the air-raid siren sounded, my parents both ran to the air-raid shelter at Kodani’s place across the street, but to their terrible luck a bomb landed nearby. The blast wave sent my parents flying, my father thrown as far as the other side of the street, both being killed instantly. My mother’s body wasn’t found, but somehow scraps of her kimono appeared to be caught up in the ginkgo tree on Chiekōin-dōri. My house had collapsed on top of me and it seems that I was rescued, but I was out cold for a whole week. I was admitted to a hospital of the electricity bureau at Senbon-Kitaōji for a month and a half. Upon returning home after I was finally discharged, I found there was no trace of it left. My wife was also injured by the bombing but wasn’t admitted to hospital and I only heard afterwards that she had been recovering at her family home for over a month."

Hori Hidekazu, Hidden Air Raids (1974). Translated by author

Kamigyō Air Raid Memorial

A memorial was erected in Waraku Park by the Kushū hisai o kiroku suru hi no konryuīn kai (Air Raid Damage Memorial Society) in 2005, recording the bombing and marking where each bomb fell in the neighbourhood. The unveiling ceremony was attended by 120 survivors who hoped that the memory of the bombing would be passed onto the next generation (Moxham 2023). Alongside various homemade memorials in the neighbourhood, this reflects the challenge faced by survivors in getting the attack on the public record.

Higashiyama Air Raid

When: 16 January 1945

Casualties: 41 killed, 48 injured, in total 729 affected

Damage: 141 homes partially or completely destroyed.

At 11:23 pm, a mixture of incendiary and explosive bombs were dropped by a lone B29 bomber over the western and lower Umamachi district in Higashiyama ward, eastern Kyoto. The area had no military structures, consisting only of schools, temples and residential buildings. Matsubara Girls School, mentioned by Tamura above, was one of the schools hit in the attack. In the quotation below, Ōno Takejiro (大野竹治郎) tells how he desperately sought help for those trapped in their homes.

"Immediately fires from the incendiary bombs were rising in the west-side of the neighbourhood. The eastern side was half destroyed, the next three houses were completely destroyed, and about 10 were crushed flat. Many had fires burning on that cold winter night, still smouldering everywhere. Voices crying for help and flickering fires were coming from the Masuo house next door, home to a family of eight, so I went in and kept yelling "get moving!" to them as I brought them back to my house, asked my wife to take care of them, and left again. In any case, none of the wardens from central Kyoto had come despite our requests. Nor did we expect them to come. There were many dead and injured people trapped under houses, so I had no choice but to ask for help from other districts. Some ran to the west side when I shouted for help, but just one or two people really. Some people came looking worried, but they didn't ask any questions."

Ōno Takejiro, Hidden Air Raids (1974). Translated by author

Umamachi Air Raid Memorial

Named after the local district's historical name, the Umamachi Air Raid Memorial was erected on the 17th January 2014, the 69th anniversary of the bombing (Moxham 2023). The memorial was the culmination of efforts by the "Handing Down the Umamachi Air Raid Society," who raised ￥1.3 million for its construction. They also created a website to document their research around the bombing (in Japanese only). Annual flower-offering ceremonies were held there until 2018.

Nagaokakyō air raid

When: 20 July 1945

Casualties: 1 killed, 4 injured

Damage: Cosmetic damage on targetted factory (machine gun fire - no bombing)

The attack on Nagaokakyō, known colloquially as the Kōtaki air raid, was the most unusual of the three. At 10:30 am on the 19th January, two Mustang P-51 fighters — not bombers — opened machine gun fire on a factory next to Kōtaki station. While the nature of the attack meant casualties were much smaller with little structural damage, 5 people were still injured and a young girl was killed. As recorded below, Matano Kaoriko's (俣野芳子) son was one of those injured.

"Four-year-old Tōru was hit by 2 bullets. At that time, I was washing teacups in the kitchen. When I looked up at the sky from the back door, I saw a fighter plane, so I pulled a futon out of the closet and pulled it over my head. I was shocked when a machine gun bullet hit the dirt floor and the hearth, causing flames to shoot out. The bullet passed by the side of my head, went diagonally through the chest of drawers, and remained there, wrapped in a sock. Another hit an umbrella, which broke into pieces. Only the bullet that hit the chest of drawers remained, but there were three other hollow bullet holes dotted around. Tōru suffered wounds to a major artery and his inner thigh, so I carried him to Sugimoto Hospital in front of the station, where he received first aid, and he began to recover. I went to the hospital the day after to find him recovering stably. I don't remember how much it cost. Tōru almost didn’t make it. His siblings were in elementary school where they were all waiting inside at the time, so they were spared. I dare not think what could have happened if they had been sent home."

Matano Kaoriko, Hidden Air Raids (1974). Translated by author

Nagaokakyō Peace Memorial

The Nagaokakyō Peace Memorial stands prominently outside of Nagaokakyō Station. It was the first air raid memorial to be erected in Kyoto and the only one to receive administrative funding. The centre piece is a replica of the factory chimney which was shot up in the air raid, the bullet holes serving as a reminder of the war to the locality until its demolition in 1988 (Kyoto Shimbun, 19 July 1989). The replica was created to carry forward this reminder beyond the lifespan of the chimney, embodying its message for a peaceful future.

The Struggle for Rememberance

A temporary pagoda erected for over two months in front of Kyoto station in 1949 reads Kyoto Shimin Hisensai Kansha Kinentō (京都市民非戦災感謝記念塔建設用地, construction site for a memorial tower expressing the gratitude of Kyotoites for no war damage). The project was halted after locals protested against the tower (Nishikawa 2017)

Though small by national comparison, these indiscriminate air raids devastated the lives of thousands of war-weary citizens through the loss of friends, family and homes. Despite this, there was little assistance available to help survivors given the lack of resources and the prioritization of industrial centres this late in the conflict. In Kamigyō, a communal compensation fund of 500 yen was gathered for bereaved families, approximately $150 in today's currency (USD). Kamigyō air raid survivor Oshiba Nagayoshi (小柴永吉) complained that tax exemption for victims ended abruptly after the war, with the only other aid he received being a pack of Asahi cigarettes from the police chief (Kyoto Air Raid Memorial Society 1974). Combined with the planned erection of a tower just four years later celebrating Kyoto passing through the war intact, this makes it clear how quickly the air raids were forgotten by the Kyoto adminstration.

The tower, entitled Kyoto shimin hisensai kansha kinentō (京都市民非戦災感謝記念塔, Kyotoite Gratitude for No War Damage Memorial Tower), was cancelled before completion due to protests from locals who had suffered from the air raids, demonstrating the disparity between grassroots and official war memory in Kyoto (Nishikawa 2017). Daniel Milne's (2019) research on the tower suggests it was not even intended for a local audience, but rather for American soldiers visiting the city as tourists during the postwar occupation.

Where the bombings of Japan's industrial cities were conducted under the grim logic of strategic bombing, the air raids of Kyoto were the product of senseless twists of fate that nonetheless had devastating consequences for their victims. The freak nature of these attacks saw further challenges for survivors as they struggled to ensure their misfortunes were remembered in a city keen to forget its Asia-Pacific War history in favour of celebrating its premodern heritage. In spite of this, the memorials and texts created by the survivors is a testament to the tenacity of grassroots memorial efforts to pass their stories onto the next generation.

Modern Warfare in the Old Capital Home

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