On March 17, 1945, 300 B-29s bombed Kobe with wire bombs. It was the second worst air raid after the Great Tokyo Air Raid. Incendiary bombs from American bombers, B-29s, rained down on the port of Kobe from the skies over Kobe.

    On March 17, 1945, 300 B-29s bombed Kobe with wire bombs. It was the second worst air raid after the Great Tokyo Air Raid. Incendiary bombs from U.S. bomber B-29s rained down on the port of Kobe from the skies over the city. U.S. Army Air Corps B-29s dropped on the already burning Kobe landing piers and surrounding buildings. The Kobe bombing took place on March 17, 1945, when incendiary bombs from U.S. Air Force B-29 bombers fell on Japan's sixth largest city. 2,669 people were killed on March 17. The total area affected by the Kobe air raid was 21% of the city, with 141,983 houses destroyed and a total of 530,858 people affected, 7,491 dead, and 17,002 wounded.

 The Kobe air raid was part of the strategic bombing of military and civilian targets and population centers by the U.S. 20th Army Air Corps on March 16-17, 1945, in the course of mainland Japan operations. Kobe was the sixth largest city in Japan, with a population of approximately one million people living in mostly wooden houses. Kobe was also Japan's largest port and an important city for transportation and business. Its particularly crowded business district included manufacturing facilities for steel, machinery, rubber, railroad equipment, and weapons. Kobe was very fire-prone due to its water supply from only three reservoirs and poor firefighting facilities.

　After tests were conducted at the Dugway Proving Ground, Major General Curtis E. LeMay, XXI Bomber Command, 20th Army Air Corps, ordered his Boeing B-29 Superfortress four-engine heavy bomber to increase the rate of incendiary bombs to incinerate Japanese wooden and paper houses on February 4, 1945, in an experimental carpet bombing of Kobe The bombing took place on March 16 and 17, 1945.

　On March 16 and 17, 331 B-29 bombers raided the city of Kobe. The raids targeted four key areas: the northwest corner of Kobe City, the area south of the main railroad line, the area northwest of the main railroad station, and the area northeast of the third target. As a result, approximately 7.77 km² were destroyed by fire, equivalent to 21% of Kobe's urban area of approximately 36.25 km². more than 650,000 people were left homeless and another one million homes were damaged.

　During the raid, 280 Japanese fighter planes were sighted, 96 of which engaged B-29 bombers in 128 attacks. Three American bombers were lost in the raid. Two airmen aboard the downed aircraft, Sergeant Algee S. Organus and Second Lieutenant Robert E. Copeland, survived and were captured by the Japanese. They were later tried by a hastily convened court-martial for the indiscriminate bombing of Kobe and Osaka, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad.