Bombing of Japan, Tokyo city after an attack by American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers of the US Air Force. The bodies of dead Japanese civilians killed by US Army soldiers in a bombing. The Second World War.
After the ineffective bombing of Japan in 1944, American General Curtis LeMay decided to use a new tactic, which consisted of conducting massive night bombings of Japanese cities with napalm incendiary bombs from low altitudes. The use of this tactic began in March 1945 and continued until the end of the war. 66 Japanese cities fell victim to this method of attack and were heavily damaged.
For the first time, the city of Tokyo was subjected to such a bombing of Japan on February 23, 1945 – 174 B-29 bombers destroyed about 2.56 square kilometers of the city area.
And already on the night of March 9-10, 334 bombers in two hours of attacks created a fire tornado, similar to the tornado during the bombing of Dresden.
In total, 41 square kilometers of the city, which was inhabited by about 10 million people, burned out, and 40% of the total housing stock (330 thousand houses) was destroyed.
As a result of the bombing, according to various sources, at least 80 thousand people died.
General Curtis LeMay, who was responsible for the barbaric Bombing of Japan, later stated: “I think if we had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.”
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Time of photo taken: May 10, 1945
Author: Shizuo Fukui Kōyō Ishikawa / 石川光陽