 The concentration of military and industrial manufacturing facilities including Kobe Steel, Kawanishi Aircraft Company Kawasaki Aircraft Industries and the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi Shipyards made the city of Kobe a primary target of bombing by the United States during World War II.It suffered the highest fatality rate of the five major Japanese cities (the others being Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka).The first attack upon Kobe was by one B-25 bomber as a part of the Dolittle Raid on 18 April 1942.