tokyo firebombing death toll

With an average of 103,000 inhabitants per square mile (396 people per hectare) and peak levels as high as 135,000 per square mile (521 people per hectare), 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. On 10 March, 1945, American B-29 planes rained down bombs destroying large parts of Tokyo. [Defense agency spokesperson Suniyaki SASA - describes … [25] On 3 January, 97 Superfortresses were dispatched to firebomb Nagoya. This proved difficult to achieve in practice. A communique issued by the Imperial Headquarters on 10 March stated that only "various places within the city were set afire". [130] The number of people killed in Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe were much lower than those in 10 March attack on Tokyo with fewer than 10,000 fatalities in each operation. [36] While he made this decision on his own initiative, the general directions issued to LeMay permitted such operations. Other ground crew loaded the aircraft with bombs and fuel. The results were devastating: almost 17 square miles of the city were reduced to ashes. Once Allied ground forces had captured islands sufficiently close to Japan, airfields were built on those islands (particularly Saipan and Tinian) and B-29s could reach Japan for bombing missions. An initial attack took place on 22 December which was directed at an aircraft factory and involved 78 bombers using precision bombing tactics. [74] LeMay considered Power to be the best of the wing commanding officers. [52] Due to this vulnerability, it had suffered extensive damage and heavy casualties from fires caused by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. After the raid, 79,466 bodies were recovered and recorded. [139], The attack considerably damaged the morale of Japanese civilians, with it and the other firebombing raids in March convincing most that the war situation was worse than their government had admitted. The first raid targeted an aircraft engine factory on the city's outskirts, and caused little damage. [99] By an hour after the start of the attack most of eastern Tokyo either had been destroyed or was being affected by fires. The firebombing of Tokyo was designed to terrorise and bomb the Japanese into surrender. [56], LeMay was unable to lead the raid in person as he had been prohibited from placing himself in a situation where he could be captured after being briefed on the development of atomic bombs. [66] However, many other civilians had moved into Tokyo from impoverished rural areas over the same period. [160] Historians such as Biddle, William W. Ralph and Barrett Tillman have argued that the decision to change to firebombing tactics was motivated by Arnold and LeMay's desire to prove that the B-29s were effective, and that a strategic bombing force could be a war-winning military arm. [7][8], The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29 Superfortress strategic bomber, which had an operational range of 3,250 nautical miles (3,740 mi; 6,020 km) and was capable of attacking at high altitude above 30,000 feet (9,100 m), where enemy defenses were very weak. In fact, the firebombings were worse in terms of deaths than the atomic bombings. [90] American casualties were 96 airmen killed or missing, and 6 wounded or injured. [148], Few other memorials were erected to commemorate the attack in the decades after the war. This campaign this tactic proved unsuccessful, which represented a quarter of all buildings in at... 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