On March 17, 1945, 331 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 B-29 bombers

B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...

 launched a firebombing

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....

 attack against the city of Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Of the city's residents, 8,841 were confirmed to have been killed in the resulting firestorm

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, forest fires, and wildfires...

s, which destroyed an area of three square miles and included 21% of Kobe's urban area. At the time, the city covered an area of 14 square miles (36 km²). More than 650,000 people had their homes destroyed, and the homes of another million people were damaged.
On June 5 that same year, Kobe was bombed again. Incendiaries

Incendiary device

Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus....

 dropped from 473 bombers destroyed 4.4 square miles (11.4 km²) of the city.

In addition to incendiary attacks, Kobe was the target of a B-29 precision attack on industry, three mine-laying operations and one fighter-bomber sweep:

• May 11, 1945: 92 B-29s hit Kawanishi aircraft industry
• June 18, 1945: 25 B-29s laid naval mines in several areas including waters near Kobe
• June 28, 1945: 29 B-29s laid naval mines in three harbors including Kobe
• July 19, 1945: 27 B-29s laid naval mines in several areas including waters near Kobe
• July 30, 1945: Fighters attack airfields, railroads and tactical targets throughout Kobe-Osaka area

See also

• Pacific War
  Pacific War
  The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
  
  
• Pacific Theater of Operations
  Pacific Theater of Operations
  The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...
  
  
• Bombing of Tokyo in World War II
  Bombing of Tokyo in World War II
  The bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, with large morale effects...
  
  
• Grave of the Fireflies (novel), a novel set during the bombing.
  • Grave of the Fireflies
    Grave of the Fireflies
    is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film written and directed by Isao Takahata. This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work...
    
    , an anime film based on the novel.