1945 Tokyo Fire Bombing

Here is an editorial from the Asahi Shimbun about the 1945 fire bombing of Tokyo.

March 10 marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. fire-bombing of Tokyo, an event which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives.

Toward the end of the Pacific War, large and small cities across Japan were subjected to indiscriminate bombing by U.S. aircraft. The death toll from the bombings was estimated at around 300,000, roughly the same level as those for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

The raid on Tokyo coincided with commemorations due to be marked that day by the former Imperial Japanese Army. U.S. forces sent 300 B29 bombers to unload 1,700 tons of incendiary bombs over Tokyo. The carpet bombing of urban areas marked a change in strategy for the United States, which previously had pinpointed military targets such as weapons factories.

The fire bombing of Tokyo was indeed a tragedy but World War II used the rules of Total War. The major countries involved did whatver it took to win that war even if it meant bombing cities. If the Japanese military had the capacity to fire bomb San Francisco they would of.

Here is an excerpt from the article that go my blood boiling a little bit:

Also, as the number of air-raid survivors declines year by year, we must make renewed efforts to pass down to posterity the story of this uncommon tragedy. This can be done by making use of records kept by Japan and the United States and by preserving areas that were ravaged by war.

Japan must re-examine this terrible tragedy from many angles. In doing so, it can share the profound grief of Asians who were victims of Japanese military aggression. The process also helps us understand the anger of Iraqi residents who are being subjected 60 years later to the same tactics.

I find it ironic that this Japanese newspaper wants to ensure that the tragedy of this bombing is remembered by the rest of Asia while the Japanese government has just recently released their most updated history textbooks which further white washes the tragedies inflicted on the Koreans, Chinese, etc. in Asia by the imperial Japanese military. You can’t have it both ways.

Then to equate the fire bombing of Tokyo with the bombing of Iraq is just ridiculous. I have been in Iraq and contrary to what you may think from watching the news the place was not bombed into the stone age. I was in fact amazed at how precise the bombings really were. The Iraqi infrastructure was not targeted and in amazingly good shape. In my area of operations I did see some civilians targets that got hit but mostly due to military equipment being positioned near the homes. But to say the US military diliberately targeted civilians in Iraq is ludicrous. That is something a Howard Dean supporter would say. The terrorists bombings did more damage to the Iraqi infrastructure than the US air strikes ever did. And the terrorists do target civilians. Just read the newspaper every day to verify this.

The fire bombing of Tokyo was considered necessary at the time to quickly end the war to break the will of the Japanese people to resist. Just think, the Japanese didn’t surrender after having one nuclear bomb dropped on them; it took two nuclear bombs. The American government was looking to avoid having to invade the mainland of Japan which would of cost hundreds of thousands of US lives. The bombing campaign prevented that from happening. Was it right? I guess it depends on who’s perspective you take.