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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTokyo firebombing - survivors recall most destructive air raid in history
http://www.dw.de/tokyo-firebombing-survivors-recall-most-destructive-air-raid-in-history/a-18300080An 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
(29,257 posts)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."
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
(4,571 posts)Suich
(10,642 posts)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
(41,833 posts)Grave of the Fireflies
I cried so much, omg.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)betsuni
(25,554 posts)"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
(269,087 posts)Telcontar
(660 posts)Choose wisely whom you would describe as barbarians
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)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
(41,694 posts)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
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Simply rude
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Telcontar
(660 posts)I have my big boy pants on
Telcontar
(660 posts)Only an ass plays the moral equivalence game.
Lancero
(3,004 posts)betsuni
(25,554 posts)Killing so many Japanese civilians was not proportional.
Lancero
(3,004 posts)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
(25,554 posts)Japan was beyond heinous.
Telcontar
(660 posts)Tokyo wasn't retailiation for Nanking. It was part of a strategic campaign to force Japanese surrender.
betsuni
(25,554 posts)I posted above from "The Fog of War."
Telcontar
(660 posts)betsuni
(25,554 posts)Lancero
(3,004 posts)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
(11,238 posts)The human race is barbaric.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)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
(10,005 posts)DustyJoe
(849 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)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.