Kumagaya can be a side day trip if you’re visiting Tokyo and want something different to do off the usual tourist tracks.
Most of the sites related to the Kumagaya fire raid are a short bus or taxi ride — or even a walk — from Kumagaya Station, which is accessible from Tokyo Station by Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains in around 40 minutes or only an hour and 15 minutes when using standard rail lines.
If you want to visit the Sekijoji Temple and see the burned statue, be sure to contact the temple beforehand so they can get it ready for viewing.
A small museum on the second floor of the Kumagaya City Library, a short walk south from the train station, has a history of the area and includes an exhibit on the fire raid. There’s not much information in English, however.
The stream near the center of the bombing attack is a few blocks north of the station and if you walk along it to the west, you’ll see the statue commemorating the victims of the fire raid.
From August 13 to 18, you can visit a peace exhibition, “The Last Air Raid on Kumagaya,” at Yagihashi Department Store in the city, co-hosted by the Kumagaya Air Raid Memorial Civic Organization. Yoneda will be reading her poems.
The post ‘Utterly foolish’: 12 hours before World War II ended, the US firebombed this Japanese city appeared first on CNN.
