Tokyo Air Raid Museum Popular with Intl Tourists Amid Global Tensions, Sees Record Visitor Numbers |
By Keito Ehara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
12:45 JST, May 13, 2026
A private facility documenting the 1945 Tokyo air raids has been attracting inbound tourists.
The number of foreign visitors to the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage in Koto Ward, Tokyo, reached 830 in fiscal 2025, the highest since 2013, when numbers began being counted.
While this would be in part due to the overall increase in inbound visitors to Japan, people seem to be increasingly looking to past wars in the face of international tensions today.
“There was no way out of the flames, and many people jumped into the river and died. Bodies had covered up the surface of the river. It was a scene I, as a 6-year-old, could not bear to witness,” Shizuko Nishio said to a group of about 30 students from Southern Utah University (SUU) through an interpreter on April 28.
Nishio, who now lives in Higashimurayama, Tokyo, experienced the air raid in what is now Koto Ward on March 10,........