The Firebombing of Tokyo Daniel Waller

Event’s Role in WWII More than 300 B-29 "Superfortress" bombers dropped nearly a half-million M-69 incendiary cylinders over Tokyo that night and early morning, destroying some 16 square miles of the city. The Tokyo attack was aimed at demolishing Japanese morale and rushing a surrender. Planners also wanted to wipe out small factories and drive away their employees as a way of choking the economy.

Event’s Impact in WWII An estimated 100,000 people were killed (mostly citizens) Killed more people immediately than either of the atomic bombs. Destroyed 341 enemy planes in the air and another 190 on the ground (according to my source, it says those numbers may be exaggerated) Many small water crafts were destroyed. A cargo vessel named the “Yamashio Meru” weighing over 10,000 tons was sunk in Yokohama Harbor. The US lost 60 planes in combat and 28 in “operational mishaps” Even though the bombing of Tokyo killed so many people, it didn’t affect the Japanese morale because in their culture, they are raised to fight and to never surrender.

How the event is portrayed in History At this stage, everybody had been burning down cities," said Thomas Searle, a historian at the Airpower Research Institute, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. "The Americans certainly weren't out of step in that sense."

Is the Portrayal of the Event Accurate? Not completely. It is portrayed mostly as a justified attack. How can you justify an attack that kills around 100,000 people, most of which are citizens? Like other survivors, Nihei, who escaped the fire with her family intact, said the bombing showed that war is never justifiable.

Is the Portrayal of the Event Accurate? Takae Fujiki, then a 15-year-old high-school student, recalls being chased by the bombers. She says they hunted down fleeing civilians to deliberately drop bombs on them. And they napalmed the rivers to cut off an escape route, Fujiki says. “It was obvious they were trying to kill as many of us as possible.” This is an underrated event in WWII. It killed more people than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Sources Primary Sources Shukla, Madhukar. "Tokyo Fire-Bombing: Were Hiroshima-Nagasaki required?." Alternative Perspective. 8 August 2005. blogspot.com. 5 May 2009 <http://alternativeperspective.blogspot.com/2005/08/tokyo-fire-bombing-were-hiroshima.html>. HUDSON, REPPS. "Great-grandson of a samurai prospers." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 26 Dec 2008. B5. eLibrary. Proquest CSA. HOOVER HIGH SCHOOL. 05 May 2009. <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com>. Secondary Sources "The Japanese View." The Tokyo Fire Raids, 1945. 2004. eyewitness to history.com. 5 May 2009. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tokyo.htm Coleman, Joseph. "1945 Tokyo Firebombing Left Legacy of Terror, Pain ." Associated Press. 10 March 2005. commondreams.org. 5 May 2009 <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0310-08.htm>.