Tokyo firebombing - survivors recall most destructive air raid in history

[Bonobo]

http://www.dw.de/tokyo-firebombing-survivors-recall-most-destructive-air-raid-in-history/a-18300080

An estimated 100,000 people perished in the firebomb raid on Tokyo in the night of March 9-10, 1945. At the same time, 1 million were rendered homeless and over 41 square kilometers of the city were razed to the ground.

Haruyo Nihei was just eight years old when the US bombers unleashed their deadly cargoes above Tokyo, yet the terrors of that night and the days that followed are seared into her memory. Seven decades later, she says her ability to recall can be a curse.

That was about to change for Nihei, her parents, older brother and younger sister.

The family lived in the working-class Koto district of the city, north-west of the heart of Tokyo - an area of small wood-and-paper homes crammed together in close communities. Her parents had a business selling spices to restaurants around the city.

Pile of corpses

Miraculously, as the dawn began to rise and the fires died down, Nihei's father found her and pulled her from the pile of corpses on top of her. Charred beyond recognition, they had saved her from a similar fate, she said.

A total of 279 B-29 Superfortresses took part in the raid, dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on the Japanese capital. The majority were 230kg cluster bombs that each released 38 bomblets carrying napalm at an altitude of around 750 meters.

The weapons were able to burn straight through the flimsy homes, schools and hospitals in what was primarily a residential district.
As well as the 100,000 who were killed, an estimated 125,000 were injured and 1.5 million lost their homes. The raid killed more people than the comparable attack on the German city of Dresden, as well as the immediate casualties of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. The firestorm also destroyed countless small companies churning out equipment for the Japanese war effort.

"It has a special meaning for us to have this facility on this spot," said Takeuchi. "I don't hate Americans and I don't hold a grudge, but I do want future generations to know what happened here.

"I don't think that most people really understand what happened," she said. "We want to show that in war, it is the weak and vulnerable - women, the elderly, children - who are too often the victims."


The charred remains of a woman and the child she carried on her back.

[Bonobo]

1. 100,000 civilians killed in ONE NIGHT and a million made homeless.

I would hope that some people would give a thought for the innocent lives on this anniversary.

"One death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic."

[ND-Dem]

2. kr

[Bonobo]

3. Thank you.

It is right that this be remembered.

War should not be an excuse for the callous and wholesale burning of innocent men, women and children.

100,000 in one night.

It is a heinous act that should have been considered a war crime if that title had any meaning other than one with which to extract further payments from the losers of a war.

[ND-Dem]

4. in general, americans don't seem big on memory.

[Suich]

5. I didn't realize they were "napalm bomblets."

Seventy years later, and it's still the "weak and vulnerable - women, the elderly, children - who are too often the victims."

Thanks for posting this, Bonobo.

[yuiyoshida]

6. One of the saddest movie I have ever seen was

Grave of the Fireflies

I cried so much, omg.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? Gandhi

[betsuni]

8. From "The Fog of War"

"Killing 50-90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional ... to the objectives we were trying to achieve. ... LeMay said, if we'd lost the war we'd all be prosecuted as war criminals."

[malaise]

9. The real barbarians

[Telcontar]

10. May I ask if you are familiar with The Rape of Nanking?

Choose wisely whom you would describe as barbarians

[Bonobo]

11. One can condemn both acts.

Today, however, is the anniversary of the most murderous and brutal air raid ever that killed over 100,000 civilians in a single night.

If you had a shred of decency, you could simply condemn the act, show some remorse for the innocent victims and not be an ass.

[hobbit709]

12. someone had a cow but didn't get far.

On Mon Mar 9, 2015, 08:24 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

One can condemn both acts.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6335443

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Simply rude

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Mar 9, 2015, 08:30 AM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Sometimes the truth sounds rude but isn't inappropriate.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Strongly worded, but no more rude than the post to which it replies.

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[Telcontar]

14. hunh...for the record, I didnt alert

I have my big boy pants on

[Telcontar]

13. One was necessary to stop the other

Only an ass plays the moral equivalence game.

[Lancero]

15. Condemn doesn't mean label.

[betsuni]

16. The Rape of Nanking was committed by Japanese soldiers.

Killing so many Japanese civilians was not proportional.

[Lancero]

18. Committed by soldiers... Against civilians.

Both actions were heinous, but it's hard to call one side out for immoral actions in war when the other side was the one who decided to undertake them first.

Basically? Pot, meet kettle. Japan didn't have a reguard for civilians, Japan chose to fight on lower standards - The US is guilty of following Japans example for sure, but to call them the 'real barbarians' for their actions is a bit odd when another side had just as little regard.

Still though, it's a bit hard to call the US the real barbarians, considering the actions that Japans allys took. Ah well, I guess not everyone sees death camps as barbaric.

[betsuni]

20. Well, I didn't call the U.S. the true barbarians.

Japan was beyond heinous.

[Telcontar]

19. I think too many people really dont understand what war is

Tokyo wasn't retailiation for Nanking. It was part of a strategic campaign to force Japanese surrender.

[betsuni]

22. I know it wasn't. I was referring to proportional as in the video

I posted above from "The Fog of War."

[Telcontar]

23. Sorry, thought you were responding to me

[betsuni]

24. Well, now I've lost tack of who I'm responding to...

[Lancero]

25. And what's what a lot of people who decry attacks like these don't care to look into.

What people tend to ignore is the casualty numbers, on both sides, should a ground invasion took place.

It's not something people like to admit, but the deaths from the bombings are far less then estimates for deaths in a ground campaign. People hate to admit this, because that means that - GASP - these attacks had legitimate reasons.

[Demit]

26. "civilization is no more than a veneer, through which barbarism is always about to extrude."

The human race is barbaric.

[Octafish]

17. The Cigar Who Brought the Fire Wind: Curtis LeMay and the Incendiary Bombing of Japan

A history on the brains behind firebombing:

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cigar_that_Brought_the_Fire_Wind.html?id=dUImHAAACAAJ

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Gen. LeMay was insubordinate to President Kennedy and then talked about JFK behind his back.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=edit&forum=1002&thread=1414805

[CK_John]

21. People who live in paper houses should not start war.

[DustyJoe]

27. ^^THIS^^ nt

[FLPanhandle]

28. It's only a war crime if the losing side does it.

Dresden was just as bad.

Hell, people still praise General Sherman because of his "wage war on the citizens" tactics during the Civil War.

The lesson is not to get into a war unless you are sure you are going to win it.