Akita City held a memorial service on 14 August to mark 80 years since the Tsuchizaki air raid, regarded by historians as the last bombing of Japan before its surrender in World War II. About 150 people gathered at the Akita Port Promotion Center, where a bell tolled and flowers were laid for the victims. Local estimates put the death toll at more than 250 when U.S. B-29 bombers dropped roughly 12,000 bombs on the Japanese Oil Akita refinery and surrounding residential areas during the night of 14 August 1945 and the early hours of the following day. Survivors such as 84-year-old Tsuneko Ito recounted seeking shelter in hastily dug air-raid trenches and returning to find their homes destroyed. The Tsuchizaki Port Hibaku Citizens’ Association, led by her husband Norihisa Ito, is rebuilding an accurate registry of the dead after decades of fragmentary records. The ceremony also featured children reading essays calling for peace and a song titled “Pond of Sorrow,” written by a local poet to preserve memories of the blast craters that once scarred the district. Similar commemorations are being held elsewhere as Japan approaches the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. In Osaka, roughly 300 residents, students and bereaved families gathered at JR Kyobashi Station to remember the Kyobashi air raid, which killed an estimated 500 to 600 people when a U.S. strike hit an army arsenal and the busy railway hub on 14 August 1945. National events will culminate with the government’s annual war-dead memorial service in Tokyo on 15 August, although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to forgo issuing a new anniversary statement, breaking with a three-decade practice of decennial declarations.