The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia

Yokohama

Photograph of Yokohama in 1908

Yokohama during visit of U.S. "Great White Fleet" in 1908.

Naval History and Heritage Command #NH 1567

Yokohama (139.641E 35.463N) is a major port city on the west side of Tokyo Bay. The port was opened in 1859 to export silk, and the city was incorporated on 1 April 1889. The city was almost completely destroyed in the great earthquake of 1923 and was rebuilt to modern standards. Yokohama was built on the estuary of the Tsurumi River, but this was reclaimed in 1931 and the new coastline became an industrial belt. The population in October 1940 was 968,091 persons.

Nippon Hikoki K.K. The production schedule of this factory complex was approximately as follows:

Aircraft Type	Average Airframes Per Month	Starting Month	Ending Month
E16A Paul	5	1944-8	1945-8
K5Y Willow	76	1941-12	1945-8

The shipyards of Yokohama produced mostly merchant shipping and minesweepers, escorts, and other small warships, though Ryujo was also completed here prior to war.

Shipyards

Yard	Floor Space	Building Way Length	Merchant Tonnage	Naval Tonnage
Mitsubishi	2371	2731	3075	853
Asano	999	673	244	0
Kanagawa-Hitachi	228	592	197	0

Photograph of bombing of Yokohama

U.S. Army. Via ibiblio.org

The city was bombed by a single Doolittle Raider on 18 April 1942 that did negligible damage. It was among the first six Japanese cities selected for massed incendiary attack, and was first raided by 517 B-29s escorted by 101 P-51s on 29 May 1945. Some 2,570 tons of bombs were dropped, burning out 6.9 square miles (17.9 km²). By then the port was already out of operation, and by July the industrial heart of the city was almost completely destroyed.

Rail connections

Izumi

Kawasaki

References

Craven and Cate (1952; accessed 2011-10-2)

Francillon (1979)

Hansell (1986; accessed 2011-10-2)

Parillo (1993)

What's new

Comment on this article