中日戰爭初期 (自事件發端迄日軍攻陷南京，即1937 年7 至12 月)，日本海軍鹿屋航空隊與臺北關係甚為密切。七七事變在華北發生之後一個月，日本海軍調派木更津與鹿屋航空隊，分別進駐濟州島與臺北，合稱「第一聯合航空隊」，在戶塚道太郎大佐指揮之下，支援第三艦隊，從事對華「渡洋爆擊」達四個月。起初一共動用了38 架九六式中型陸上攻擊機，幾乎是當時日本海軍陸基轟炸機隊的全部精銳。隨著戰事進展，戶塚也曾率隊進駐南京、上海與北京。等次年4 月1 日第一聯合航空隊從中國大陸調回日本原駐地整補，完好的九六式只剩15 架，戰事之慘烈可見一斑，也暴露九六式偏重續航力而忽略裝甲防護的致命傷。 二戰結束至今六十餘年，滄海桑田，鹿屋隊駐紮臺北的遺跡已經不多。在淡水郊外石門鄉竹仔山尖山湖有座1938 年豎立的石碑，紀念1937 年11 月26 日在當地撞山的一架鹿屋隊九六式的將士。尖山湖位置偏僻，以往除當地村民和登山隊以外，知者不多，石碑因而得以保全。木更津隊也曾派 6 架九六式於同年 8 月 28 日和9 月17 日兩度到臺北參加鹿屋隊轟炸華南，爲期數日即飛返濟州島，和臺北淵緣較淺。

Exactly one month after the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) broke out in northern China, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Kanoya Air Group (鹿屋航空隊, KAG) was dispatched to Taipei for four months. KAG’s Mitsubishi-made Type-96 medium attack bombers carried out a series of bombardment sorties out of the Matsuyama (today’s Songshan) airfield on a daily basis, dropping bombs over Chinese airfields, fortresses, bunkers, ammo depots, rail stations, bridges, along with other targets all over the eastern mainland. Following the fall of China’s capital, Nanjing, the KAG moved its squadrons to forward airfields in Shanghai in early December 1937, which marked the end of the first deployment of KAG to Taiwan, as well as the initial phase of the Sino-Japanese War. The cross-strait bombardment of 1937 was of strategic significance for several reasons: (1) it was the first time in history that an air force had attacked its enemy’s capital, (2) the bombardment sorties involved a long flight distance of nearly one thousand kilometers each way, which was also unprecedented in the history of hostile military operations, (3) while historically the Mainland China has been playing an offensive and dominating role in nearly all the major cross-strait conflicts, the 1937 bombardment campaign was the opposite. A stone monument in the Bamboo Mountain (to the north of today’s Yang-Ming-Shan National Park) is a unique object symbolizing KAG’s deployment to Taipei seventy years ago. The monument was erected during the war in memory of the crew of a Type-96 medium bomber crashed under extremely poor weather condition on November 26, 1937. All the seven KAG crew, led by IJN Chief Petty Officer Ootsuka, were killed on the spot. Due to the remoteness of the site, the monument and the steep stone trail have remained essentially intact to this date.