An explosion clad plate composed of copper and mild steel is dealt with as a typical example of the bonded dissimilar plate. Tensile tests are carried out using rectangular plate specimens extracted from the clad plate. An artificial through-the-thickness edge crack or parallel cracks are made in each specimen. The cracks are close and perpendicular to the explosive interface. When a tensile load is applied perpendicularly to the crack plane, stress field near cracks, stress intensity factor, crack opening displacement and fracture strength are examined by experiment as well as elasto-plastic finite element analysis. The stress field and the stress intensity factor are evaluated by an infrared stress imaging system. The effects of the material inhomogeneity, the residual stress, the change of material characteristics and the interaction of parallel cracks on the stress field, the stress intensity factor, the deformation behavior and the fracture strength are revealed. The lower strength material ahead of the bonded interface increases the stress intensity factor and the crack opening displacement. The higher strength material ahead of the bonded interface decreases the stress intensity factor and the crack opening displacement. The effects of the material inhomogeneity and the interaction of parallel cracks on the crack opening displacement can be explained from the square of stress intensity factor at the low applied stress level. The brittle fracture strength of the inhomogeneous specimen can be evaluated from the stress intensity factor and linear elastic fracture mechanics criterion.