The American bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 killed an estimated 70,000 to 200,000 civilians, but is often overshadowed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombing marked one of the first incidents of mass bombing targeting an entire city. American commanders claimed they had to destroy the city’s light industry to hit the Japanese war machine, but the bombing spread fire throughout Tokyo’s densely populated neighborhoods. Firebombs spread quickly in the wooden city, causing spontaneous combustion. About 25% of the city was destroyed, and several other bombing raids targeted specific factories in the city until August 10, 1945.
The Bombing of Tokyo was an American bombing raid on the Japanese city of Tokyo that occurred on the night of March 9, 1945. In the course of the bombing, American planes dropped approximately 2,000 tons of explosives on the city, creating a massive firestorm that killed an infinite number of civilians. Estimates for the death toll in the Tokyo bombing range from 70,000 to nearly 200,000, with most historians putting it at around 130,000.
This event in Japanese history is often overshadowed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which occurred only a few months later. Unlike these events, the bombing of Tokyo is not much talked about, even in Japan, although it was a major event in World War II. The bombing of Tokyo marked one of the first incidents in which civilians fell victim to a mass bombing that deliberately and brutally targeted an entire city, in the wake of the devastating bombing of Dresden in February 1945.
American commanders justified the bombing of Tokyo by claiming they had to destroy the city’s light industry to hit the Japanese war machine, and this may have been the case. However, they must have realized that in the process of bombing suspicious factories, they would likely spread fire throughout Tokyo’s densely wood-framed neighborhoods, potentially killing large numbers of civilians.
The aircraft used in the bombing of Tokyo were B-29 bombers, stripped of all extra material so they could carry an extra-large payload and travel particularly fast. Tokyo had already been bombed numerous times throughout the war, and many survivors of the bombing of Tokyo described minimal reaction to the air raid sirens on the night of 9 March. Citizens were war-weary and many were unable to seek shelter when warned of the danger. By the time they realized the gravity of the situation, it was too late.
Firebombs such as those used in the bombing of Tokyo spread fire very quickly, and in a city built almost entirely of wooden structures, the fire quickly became extremely hot, causing spontaneous combustion in areas that had not been bombed. According to survivors, metal power poles glowed red and melted from the heat, and the city’s rivers quickly became choked with bodies and debris as civilians tried to flee.
By the time the fires had finished burning, about 25% of the city had been destroyed. During the month of April, several other bombing raids targeted specific factories in the city, with the last bombing raid on Tokyo occurring on August 10, 1945: four days after the bombing of Hiroshima and less than a week before the Japanese surrender .
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