Twenty-two female telephone switchboard operators of the Fukui Post Office Telephone Division died in the line of duty on July 19, 1945, when they were killed in an air raid by the U.S. Army on Fukui. Twenty-two female telephone switchboard operators, aged between 16 and 47, and one 60-year-old man in general affairs, who guarded the switchboard to the end even after an air raid warning was issued, were killed.

　Twenty-two female telephone switchboard operators of the Fukui Post Office Telephone Division died in the line of duty on July 19, 1945, when they were killed in an air raid by the U.S. Army on Fukui. Twenty-two female telephone switchboard operators, aged between 16 and 47, and one 60-year-old man in general affairs, who protected the switchboard to the last minute even after an air raid warning was issued, were killed as victims. They died of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. The Fukui Post Office telephone annex, located at 1 Chuo, Fukui City, was a reinforced concrete structure. Incendiary bombs from an overhead U.S. air raid on Fukui pierced the roof, and the fire spread throughout the building. Telephone operators on duty fled from the switchboard room to another room. Twenty-three people died, including 22 female telephone operators and a 60-year-old man on general duty, from smoke inhalation from a neighboring house that was also on fire.

　Fukui City was devastated by an air raid by 127 American B-29 bombers from 11:24 p.m. to 0:45 a.m. on July 19, 1945, in the final days of the Pacific War. During the intensive 81-minute raid, approximately 865 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on a radius of 1.2 km around the northwest area of the ruins of Fukui Castle. The weather was fine, increasing the accuracy of the bombing, and the damage was extensive. The U.S. military assessed the rate of destruction in the urban area of Fukui City to be about 84.8%, which was the second highest rate of destruction after Toyama City and Numazu City in the bombing of local cities in Japan. In Fukui City, more than 20,000 houses were destroyed by fire, and approximately 85,603 welfare citizens were affected, with the death toll exceeding 1,576. Of the 6,527 seriously and slightly injured, 108 of them died later.

　The city of Fukui was burned to the ground by incendiary bombs, and those who took refuge in air-raid shelters were burned to a crisp by the heat of the fire. People who jumped into the moat of Fukui Castle and the Ashiba River in search of water died in a heap. Even in Fukui Prefecture, frequent air defense and light control drills around urban areas were completely ineffective against large-scale urban bombing. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese military bombed Chongqing and other cities, indiscriminately inflicting damage on non-combatants as well.