Bombing of Tokyo in World War II
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The bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces took place at several times during the Pacific campaigns of World War II and included the most destructive conventional bombing raid in all of history.
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[edit] Doolittle Raid
The first raid on Tokyo was the Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, when sixteen B-25 Mitchells were launched from the USS Hornet to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China. The raid did no damage to Japan's war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States. Launched prematurely, none of the attacking aircraft reached the designated airfields, either crashing or ditching (except for one aircraft which landed in the Soviet Union, where the crew was interned). Two crews were captured by the Japanese.
[edit] B-29 raids
The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29, which had an operational range of 3,250 nautical miles (6,019 km); almost 90% of the bombs dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this type of bomber. The initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command but was supplemented in November 1944 by the activation of XXI Bomber Command based in the Northern Mariana Islands. The B-29s of XX Bomber Command were transferred to XXI Bomber Command in the spring of 1945 and based on Guam.
The first raid using low-flying B-29s carrying incendiaries to drop on Tokyo was on the night of February 24-25 1945 when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (3 km²) of the city.
Changing their tactics to expand the coverage and increase the damage, 279 B-29s raided on the night of March 9–10, dropping around 1,700 tons of bombs. Approximately 16 square miles (41 km²) of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the resulting firestorm, more than the immediate deaths of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.[1][2] The US Strategic Bombing Survey later estimated that nearly 88,000 people died in this one raid, 41,000 were injured, and over a million residents lost their homes. The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher toll: 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a figure of 124,711 casualties including both killed and wounded and 286,358 buildings and homes destroyed. Richard Rhodes, historian, put deaths at over 100,000, injuries at a million and homeless residents at a million. These casualty and damage figures could be low: Mark Selden wrote in Japan Focus
The figure of roughly 100,000 deaths, provided by Japanese and American authorities, both of whom may have had reasons of their own for minimizing the death toll, seems to me arguably low in light of population density, wind conditions, and survivors' accounts. With an average of 103,000 inhabitants per square mile and peak levels as high as 135,000 per square mile, the highest density of any industrial city in the world, and with firefighting measures ludicrously inadequate to the task, 15.8 square miles (41 km²) of Tokyo were destroyed on a night when fierce winds whipped the flames and walls of fire blocked tens of thousands fleeing for their lives. An estimated 1.5 million people lived in the burned out areas.[3]
The destruction and damage was at its worst in the city sections east of the Imperial Palace.
Over 50% of Tokyo would be destroyed by the end of World War Two.
[edit] B-29 missions against Tokyo
- February 19, 1945 119 B-29s hit port and urban area
- February 25, 1945 174 B-29s dropping incendiaries destroy ~28,000 buildings
- March 4, 1945 159 B-29s hit urban area
- March 10, 1945 279 B-29s dropping incendiaries destroy ~267,000 buildings; ~25% of city (Operation Meetinghouse) killing some 100,000 civilians
- April 2, 1945 >100 B-29s bomb the Nakajima aircraft factory
- April 3, 1945 68 B-29s bomb the Koizumi aircraft factory and urban areas in Tokyo
- April 7, 1945 101 B-29s bomb the Nakajima aircraft factory.
- April 13, 1945 <330 B-29s bomb the arsenal area
- April 15, 1945 109 B-29s hit urban area
- May 24, 1945 520 B-29s bomb urban-industrial area south of the Imperial Palace
- April 26, 1945 464 B-29s bomb urban area immediately south of the Imperial Palace
- July 20, 1945 1 B-29 drops a Pumpkin bomb through overcast aiming at but missing the Imperial Palace[4]
- August 8, 1945 ~60 B-29s bomb the aircraft factory and arsenal
- August 10, 1945 70 B-29s bomb the arsenal complex
Additional missions against Tokyo targets were carried out by twin-engine bombers and by fighter-bombers.[5]
[edit] Aftermath
Damage to Tokyo's heavy industry was slight until firebombing destroyed much of the light industry that was used as an integral source for small machine parts and time-intensive processes. Firebombing also killed and made homeless many workers who had been taking part in war industry. Over 50% of Tokyo's industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods; firebombing cut their output in half.
Emperor Hirohito's viewing of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March, 1945, is said to have been the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process, culminating in Japan's surrender five months later.[6]
After the war, Tokyo would struggle to rebuild. In 1945/1946, the city received a share of the national reconstruction budget roughly proportional to its amount of bombing damage (26.6%), but in successive years Tokyo saw its share dwindle. By 1949, Tokyo was given only 10.9% of the budget; at the same time there was runaway inflation devaluing those monies as Japan was spending more than it was bringing in from taxes. Occupation authorities such as Joseph Dodge stepped in and drastically cut back on Japanese government rebuilding programs, focusing instead on simply improving roads and transportation. Tokyo would not experience fast economic growth until the 1950s.[7]
Unexploded U.S. bombs were still being found and recovered in Tokyo as late as 2008.[8]
[edit] See also
- United States strategic bombing of Japan
- Bombing of Kobe in World War II
- Battle of Okinawa
- Battle of Iwo Jima
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Curtis LeMay
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Freeman Dyson. Part I: A Failure of Intelligence. Technology Review, November 1, 2006, MIT
- ^ David McNeill. The night hell fell from the sky. Japan Focus, March 10, 2005
- ^ Mark Selden. A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from the Pacific War to Iraq. Japan Focus, May 2, 2007
- ^ Norman Polmar. The Enola Gay: The B-29 That Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, pp 24. Potomac Books (2004) ISBN 1574888366
- ^ Air Force Historical Studies Office. U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II: Combat Chronology 1941-1945
- ^ Bradley, F. J. No Strategic Targets Left. "Contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII" p. 38. Turner Publishing Company, limited edition. ISBN 1563114836
- ^ Andre Sorensen. The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty First Century RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. ISBN 0415354226
- ^ [The Daily Yomiuri http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080519TDY01301.htm]
[edit] Books
- Coffey, Thomas M. (1987). Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay. Random House Value Publishing. ISBN 0-517-55188-8.
- Crane, Conrad C. (1994). The cigar that brought the fire wind: Curtis LeMay and the strategic bombing of Japan. JGSDF-U.S. Army Military History Exchange. ASIN B0006PGEIQ.
- Frank, Richard B. (2001). Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Penguin. ISBN 0141001461.
- Grayling, A. C. (2007). Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan. New York: Walker Publishing Company Inc.. ISBN 0-8027-1565-6.
- Greer, Ron (2005). Fire from the Sky: A Diary Over Japan. Jacksonville, Arkansas, U.S.A.: Greer Publishing. ISBN 0-9768712-0-3.
- Guillian, Robert (1982). I Saw Tokyo Burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Jove Pubns. ISBN 0-86721-223-3.
- Hoyt, Edwin P. (2000). Inferno: The Fire Bombing of Japan, March 9 - August 15, 1945. Madison Books. ISBN 1568331495.
- Lemay, Curtis E.; Bill Yenne (1988). Superfortress: The Story of the B-29 and American Air Power. McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN 0-07-037164-4.
- McGowen, Tom (2001). Air Raid!:The Bombing Campaign. Brookfield, Connecticut, U.S.A.: Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 0-7613-1810-0.
- Shannon, Donald H. (1976). United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U.S. Air University, Air War College. ASIN B0006WCQ86.
- Smith, Jim; Malcolm Mcconnell (2002). The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II's Final Battle. Broadway. ISBN 0767907787.
- Werrell, Kenneth P. (1998). Blankets of Fire. Smithsonian. ISBN 1560988711.
[edit] External links
- 67 Japanese cities firebombed in World War II
- B29 Air Raid on Japanese Cities, with photo gallery
- Army Air Forces in World War II
- The Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damagess / Introduction
- Barrell, Tony (1997). Tokyo's Burning. ABC Online. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.- Transcript of a radio documentary/commentary on the Tokyo firebombing with excerpts from interviews with participants and witnesses.
- Craven, Wesley Frank; James Lea Cate. Vol. V: The Pacific: MATTERHORN to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945. The Army Air Forces in World War II. U.S. Office of Air Force History. Retrieved on December 12, 2006.
- Hansell, Jr., Haywood S. (1986). The Strategic Air War Against Germany and Japan: A Memoir. Project Warrior Studies. U.S. Office of Air Force History. Retrieved on December 12, 2006.
