World War II began and the life was greatly restricted. Takasaki city, which used to be prosperous with commerce, became dull. Daily commodities became scarce, and the distribution system was introduced.

Labor Service and Air Raid

Many students provided labor services at factories. For example, beginning in 1944, the students of Takasaki Girls High School began producing the balloons that were used for balloon-bombs. They made balloons in the schoolyard where the dry wind worked well to dry glue applied on the surface of the balloons.

The people of Takasaki had an air raid inJuly and August of 1945. On August 14th, various areas of Takasaki city (Miyamoto-cho, Saya-cho, Tori-machi, Suehiro-cho, Kaizawa-machi, Iizuka-machi, Egi-machi, ShimoSano-machi) was destroyed and 8people were killed, 24 injured, 701 houses destroyed, and 31243 people suffered from the air raid somehow. This occurred the day before World War II ended and was the last air raid in Japan.

Consolidation of Towns and Villages after World War II

By enforcing a law promoting the merging of towns and villages, those having a population of less than 8,000 were forced to merge with bigger towns and cities. Rokugo village in Gunma-gun merged with Takasaki city on April 1st, 1951 before the enforcement of the law, and Toyooka Village and Yawata Village in Usui-gun, and Nakagawa village and Shintakao village in Gunma-gun merged with Takasaki city after enforcement of the law in January of 1955. Additionally, Nagano village in Gunma-gun merged on August 1st, 1955, Orui Village in Gunma-gun and Yawata village in Tano-gun merged on September 30th in 1956, and Gunnan Village merged on August 1st, 1957. Takigawa and Kyogashima towns merged on September 30th, 1960. Iwahana-machi merged with Takasaki on August 1st, 1957 as did Kuragano-machi on March 31st, 1963.

New Japan Children Exhibition

From April 1st to May 20th, 1952, when people were beginning to recover from the confusion after World War II, the New Japan Takasaki Children Exhibition was held at Kannonyama. The event was held as a result of the SanFrancisco peace agreement in honor of the electrification of Takasaki Railroad Line and in hope of the happiness of children. The toy trains, bobsleds, airplaines and American house were very popular. The exhibition was held for a period of 50 days with 500,000 participants. The park where the events were held is the current "Kappapia" amusement park.

Birth of The Gunma Symphony Orchestra

The Gunma Symphoney Orchestra rose from the ruins of World War II. Twenty music lovers gathered and established the Takasaki Citizens' Orchestra in November of 1945, which was renamed the Gunma Symphony Orchestra in 1947. The history of the orchestra was made into a movie “Koko-ni-Izumi-ari". Gunma became the "Model Musical Prefecture" and the Gunma Music Center was constructed in Takasaki to provide the orchestra with a main performance stage. The memorial stone in front of the hall indicates the sprit and dignity of the citizens in those days.