80 Years Ago, US Firebombing Killed 105K in Tokyo

More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago Monday in the US firebombing of Tokyo. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed downtown Tokyo and filled the streets with heaps of charred bodies. The damage was comparable to the atomic bombings a few months later in August 1945, but unlike with those attacks, the Japanese government has not provided aid to victims and the events of that day have largely been ignored or forgotten, the AP reports.

• Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial assistance and recognition. Some are speaking out for the first time, trying to tell a younger generation about their lessons. Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, says her mission is to keep telling the history she witnessed at 14, speaking out on behalf of those who died.

• On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s raided Tokyo, dumping cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese-style wood and paper homes in the crowded "shitamachi" downtown neighborhoods.
• The bombing came after the collapse of Japanese air and naval defenses following the US capture of a string of former Japanese strongholds in the Pacific that allowed B-29 Superfortress bombers to easily hit Japan's main islands. There was growing frustration in the US at the length of the war and past Japanese military atrocities, such as the Bataan Death March.

• More than 105,000 people were estimated to have died that night. A million others became homeless. But the Tokyo firebombing has been largely eclipsed by the two atomic bombings. And firebombings of dozens of other Japanese cities have received even less attention.
• Postwar governments have provided 60 trillion yen ($405 billion) in welfare support for military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Civilian victims of the US firebombings received nothing. A group of survivors who want government recognition of their suffering and financial help met earlier this month, renewing their demands.
• "This year will be our last chance," Yumi Yoshida, who lost her parents and sister in the bombing, said at a meeting, referring to the 80th anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat.

(More World War II stories.)