During the Pacific War of World War II, members of the Tokyo Fire Defense Corps who had been mobilized for the Great Tokyo Air Raid collected the bodies of Tokyo residents who had died in the air raid and buried them temporarily in a park.

　　In the Pacific War of World War II, members of the Civil Defense Corps who had been mobilized collected the bodies of Tokyo residents who had died in the Great Tokyo Air Raid and buried them temporarily in trucks (photo provided by the Naihi Times). The members of the Civil Defense Corps who were ordered to work on a quota basis from each ward were in charge of collecting the bodies and carrying out the temporary burials. First, the bodies were collected into trucks and taken to Sarue Park, Sumida Park (on the Asakusa and Honjo sides), or Kinshi Park, where they were sorted into two groups: those whose names and addresses were known, and those whose names and addresses were unknown. Temporary burials were carried out two to three days later, in response to requests from the next of kin. The bodies of those who had died in a way that affected the morale of the Japanese people were quickly buried in a way that kept them out of sight. The number of bodies that were buried in this way was only roughly known.

　The American air raids on Tokyo that began in November 1944 caused little damage at first, as the hope was small, and apart from casualties caused by bombs penetrating the ground, there were few deaths even among those affected by incendiary bombs. From the end of 1944, the number of fire districts caused by incendiary bombs increased, and deaths from fires began to occur.

　There were problems with collecting the bodies, but the most extensive and tragic of these was the Great Tokyo Air Raid that took place from the night of March 9th to March 10th, 1945. An enormous number of people died in the area from Koto Ward to Asakusa and Nihonbashi near the Sumida River. Tokyo residents were unable to escape the fire by abandoning their possessions and staying in their burning homes to fight the fire. The area of downtown across the Sumida River was turned into a sea of fire by the carpet bombs, and many Tokyo citizens who had been trying to prevent fires were almost all burned to death or suffocated by the smoke. The bodies were piled up from Shirahige Bridge to Azumabashi Bridge, and the riverside was filled with corpses, and the bodies were scattered in both Sumida Park and Meijiza Theater.