Hello. This month marks 80 years since the end of World War Ⅱ on August 15, 1945. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications website, Nishinomiya City suffered five air raids from May to August 1945, and many sake breweries were also damaged. In this article, we will introduce about sake breweries at that time.
The sake breweries of Tatsuuma-Honke Brewing Co. Ltd. were directly damaged in the fifth Nishinomiya air raid, which occurred between the midnight of August 5 and 6. American B-29 bombers invading from the Kii Channel dropped many incendiary bombs on Nishinomiya, some of which exploded on the grounds of the company. In addition to the Shinden-gura brewery, which was in operation, many sake breweries were damaged, including the ones that had been suspended due to the wartime control caused by the shortage of supplies due to the prolonged war.
To oppose these incendiary bombs, the company employees had organized a special defense team and trained regularly. In fact, the chief of the Nishinomiya Fire Department presented them with a certificate of commendation for their contribution to firefighting by a bucket brigade and spraying water using a pump. Despite these efforts, 30 of the 53 sake breweries that existed before the air raids were burned down (9 of the 22 breweries that were operating at the time were burned down) and 36 breweries were lost, including those that were demolished due to the evacuation of buildings. Also, 20 other facilities, including a rice mill, warehouse, and company housing, were also destroyed by fire. In most of the breweries that burned down, incendiary bombs penetrated the roofs and reached and started to burn the second floor. Although there were stored sake which had brewed in winter on the first floor, the unburned sake became a sweet one with burnt alcohol content. Therefore, the sake was discarded in the presence of a tax official.
However, while many sake brewing companies lost their main breweries, only Hakushika-kan and Shinden-gura No.1~4, and 6 were hit by incendiary bombs among the main breweries of Tatsuuma-Honke Brewing Co. Ltd, Hakushika-kan, Shinden-gura No. 1~10, and Kitashinden-gura No. 1~5. Hakushika-kan was made of reinforced concrete, but incendiary bombs broke through the roofs and reached and exploded the second floor. This explosion destroyed water pipes by coincidence and water gushed out. Because of it, the fire was extinguished with less damage. Also, firefighting efforts by the defense team were successful and the fire was not completely burned down at Shinden-gura No.2.
In Nada-go-gō, not only sake breweries in Nishinomiya and Imazu, but also them in Kobe were damaged by air raids. It may be said that it was fortunate that some of the main breweries of the Tatsuuma-Honke Brewing Co. Ltd. were not damaged. In this article, we introduced the damage of sake breweries caused by Nishinomiya Air Raid, on the occasion of 80 years after World War Ⅱ. We hope that the world will be at peace for a long time to come. We look forward to seeing you next month!
There was a time when the sake tax was the number one source of tax revenue in Japan!