newsivl

Tokyo – More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago in the American fire bomb of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed the city center of Tokyo and filled the streets with charred body.

Damage was comparable to the atomic attacks a few months later in August 1945, but unlike these attacks, the Japanese government did not provide victims and today’s events have been widely ignored or forgotten.

Elderly survivors make one last effort to tell their stories and put pressure on financial assistance and recognition. Some are expressed for the first time, trying to speak to a young generation of their lessons.

Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, says that her mission is to continue telling the story she witnessed at 14, speaking on behalf of those who died.

On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s made a descent to Tokyo, to cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese style wood and paper houses in the crowded districts of the city center of “Shitamachi”.

Takeuchi and his parents had lost their own house in a previous fire bomb in February and sheltered in the riverside house of a parent. His father insisted to cross the river in the opposite direction of the place where the crowd was heading, a decision that saved the family. Takeuchi remembers walking in the night under a red sky. The sunsets and the orange sirens always make it uncomfortable.

The next morning, everything had burned. Two blackened figures attracted her eyes. Looking more closely, she realized that she was a woman and what looked like a piece of coal by her side was her baby. “I was terribly shocked. … I felt sorry for them, “she said.” But after seeing so many others, I was without emotion at the end. “”

Many of those who have not burned to death quickly jumped into the Sumida river and were crushed or drowned.

More than 105,000 people were reportedly died that night. One million others have become homeless. The number of deaths exceeded people killed on August 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

But Tokyo fire bombs have been widely overshadowed by the two atomic attacks. And fire bombs on dozens of other Japanese cities have received even less attention.

The bombardment occurred after the collapse of Japanese air and naval defenses after the American capture of a chain of former Japanese bastions in the Pacific that allowed B-29 bombers of superforting to easily strike the main islands of Japan. In the United States, there was growing frustration on the length of the war and Japanese military atrocities, such as the Batan death march.

Ai Saotome has a house full of notes, photos and other documents that his father left his death at the age of 90 in 2022. His father, Katsumoto Saotome, was a award -winning writer and a Fire Bomb of Tokyo. He gathered accounts of his peers to educate civilian dead and the importance of peace.

Saotome says that the feeling of urgency that his father and other survivors felt is not shared between the young generations.

Although his father has published books on TOKYO’s shooting bombs and his victims, going through his raw material gave him new perspectives and a conscience of the assault of Japan during the war.

She digitizes the equipment at the Center for Raids and War Damage of Tokyo, a museum that her father opened in 2002 after having collected records and artifacts on the attack.

“Our generation does not know much about experience (that of survivors), but at least we can hear their stories and record their voice,” she said. “This is the responsibility of our generation.”

“In about 10 years, when we have a world where nobody remembers anything (on this subject), I hope these documents and files can help,” said Saotome.

The post-war governments provided 60 yen billions (405 billion dollars) of social support to military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for the survivors of the atomic attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The civilian victims of American fire bombs have received nothing.

A group of survivors who wish government recognition of their suffering and their financial aid meet earlier this month, renewing their requests.

No government agency manages civilian survivors or keeps its files. The Japanese courts rejected their requests for compensation of 11 million yen ($ 74,300) each, saying that citizens were supposed to suffer from emergency in the event of an emergency such as war. A group of legislators in 2020 has compiled a project to propose for half a million years ($ 3,380) a punctual payment, but the plan has stalled due to the opposition of certain members of the ruling party.

“This year will be our last chance,” said Yumi Yoshida, who lost his parents and his sister in the bombing during a meeting, referring to the 80th anniversary of the Japanese defeat of the Second World War.

On March 10, 1945, Reiko Muto, a former nurse, was on her bed still carrying her uniform and her shoes. Muto jumped when she heard aerial raid sirens and rushed to the pediatric service where she was a nursing student. The elevators arrested because of the raid, she went up and descended a weakly lit stairwell transporting infants in a basement gymnasium for a shelter.

Soon, trucks of people began to arrive. They were taken to the basement and aligned “like tuna on a market”. Many had serious burns and cried and begged water. The cries and the smell of the burned skin stayed with it for a long time.

Reconorter was the best she could do due to a shortage of medical supplies.

When the war ended five months later, on August 15, she immediately thought: more shooting bombs meant that she could leave the lights on. She finished her studies and worked as a nurse to help children and adolescents.

“What we have experienced should never be repeated,” she says.

Tokyo – More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago in the American fire bomb of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed the city center of Tokyo and filled the streets with charred body.

Damage was comparable to the atomic attacks a few months later in August 1945, but unlike these attacks, the Japanese government did not provide victims and today’s events have been widely ignored or forgotten.

Elderly survivors make one last effort to tell their stories and put pressure on financial assistance and recognition. Some are expressed for the first time, trying to speak to a young generation of their lessons.

Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, says that her mission is to continue telling the story she witnessed at 14, speaking on behalf of those who died.

On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s made a descent to Tokyo, to cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese style wood and paper houses in the crowded districts of the city center of “Shitamachi”.

Takeuchi and his parents had lost their own house in a previous fire bomb in February and sheltered in the riverside house of a parent. His father insisted to cross the river in the opposite direction of the place where the crowd was heading, a decision that saved the family. Takeuchi remembers walking in the night under a red sky. The sunsets and the orange sirens always make it uncomfortable.

The next morning, everything had burned. Two blackened figures attracted her eyes. Looking more closely, she realized that she was a woman and what looked like a piece of coal by her side was her baby. “I was terribly shocked. … I felt sorry for them, “she said.” But after seeing so many others, I was without emotion at the end. “”

Many of those who have not burned to death quickly jumped into the Sumida river and were crushed or drowned.

More than 105,000 people were reportedly died that night. One million others have become homeless. The number of deaths exceeded people killed on August 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

But Tokyo fire bombs have been widely overshadowed by the two atomic attacks. And fire bombs on dozens of other Japanese cities have received even less attention.

The bombardment occurred after the collapse of Japanese air and naval defenses after the American capture of a chain of former Japanese bastions in the Pacific that allowed B-29 bombers of superforting to easily strike the main islands of Japan. In the United States, there was growing frustration on the length of the war and Japanese military atrocities, such as the Batan death march.

Ai Saotome has a house full of notes, photos and other documents that his father left his death at the age of 90 in 2022. His father, Katsumoto Saotome, was a award -winning writer and a Fire Bomb of Tokyo. He gathered accounts of his peers to educate civilian dead and the importance of peace.

Saotome says that the feeling of urgency that his father and other survivors felt is not shared between the young generations.

Although his father has published books on TOKYO’s shooting bombs and his victims, going through his raw material gave him new perspectives and a conscience of the assault of Japan during the war.

She digitizes the equipment at the Center for Raids and War Damage of Tokyo, a museum that her father opened in 2002 after having collected records and artifacts on the attack.

“Our generation does not know much about experience (that of survivors), but at least we can hear their stories and record their voice,” she said. “This is the responsibility of our generation.”

“In about 10 years, when we have a world where nobody remembers anything (on this subject), I hope these documents and files can help,” said Saotome.

The post-war governments provided 60 yen billions (405 billion dollars) of social support to military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for the survivors of the atomic attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The civilian victims of American fire bombs have received nothing.

A group of survivors who wish government recognition of their suffering and their financial aid meet earlier this month, renewing their requests.

No government agency manages civilian survivors or keeps its files. The Japanese courts rejected their requests for compensation of 11 million yen ($ 74,300) each, saying that citizens were supposed to suffer from emergency in the event of an emergency such as war. A group of legislators in 2020 has compiled a project to propose for half a million years ($ 3,380) a punctual payment, but the plan has stalled due to the opposition of certain members of the ruling party.

“This year will be our last chance,” said Yumi Yoshida, who lost his parents and his sister in the bombing during a meeting, referring to the 80th anniversary of the Japanese defeat of the Second World War.

On March 10, 1945, Reiko Muto, a former nurse, was on her bed still carrying her uniform and her shoes. Muto jumped when she heard aerial raid sirens and rushed to the pediatric service where she was a nursing student. The elevators arrested because of the raid, she went up and descended a weakly lit stairwell transporting infants in a basement gymnasium for a shelter.

Soon, trucks of people began to arrive. They were taken to the basement and aligned “like tuna on a market”. Many had serious burns and cried and begged water. The cries and the smell of the burned skin stayed with it for a long time.

Reconorter was the best she could do due to a shortage of medical supplies.

When the war ended five months later, on August 15, she immediately thought: more shooting bombs meant that she could leave the lights on. She finished her studies and worked as a nurse to help children and adolescents.

“What we have experienced should never be repeated,” she says.

Tokyo – More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago in the American fire bomb of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed the city center of Tokyo and filled the streets with charred body.

Damage was comparable to the atomic attacks a few months later in August 1945, but unlike these attacks, the Japanese government did not provide victims and today’s events have been widely ignored or forgotten.

Elderly survivors make one last effort to tell their stories and put pressure on financial assistance and recognition. Some are expressed for the first time, trying to speak to a young generation of their lessons.

Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, says that her mission is to continue telling the story she witnessed at 14, speaking on behalf of those who died.

On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s made a descent to Tokyo, to cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese style wood and paper houses in the crowded districts of the city center of “Shitamachi”.

Takeuchi and his parents had lost their own house in a previous fire bomb in February and sheltered in the riverside house of a parent. His father insisted to cross the river in the opposite direction of the place where the crowd was heading, a decision that saved the family. Takeuchi remembers walking in the night under a red sky. The sunsets and the orange sirens always make it uncomfortable.

The next morning, everything had burned. Two blackened figures attracted her eyes. Looking more closely, she realized that she was a woman and what looked like a piece of coal by her side was her baby. “I was terribly shocked. … I felt sorry for them, “she said.” But after seeing so many others, I was without emotion at the end. “”

Many of those who have not burned to death quickly jumped into the Sumida river and were crushed or drowned.

More than 105,000 people were reportedly died that night. One million others have become homeless. The number of deaths exceeded people killed on August 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

But Tokyo fire bombs have been widely overshadowed by the two atomic attacks. And fire bombs on dozens of other Japanese cities have received even less attention.

The bombardment occurred after the collapse of Japanese air and naval defenses after the American capture of a chain of former Japanese bastions in the Pacific that allowed B-29 bombers of superforting to easily strike the main islands of Japan. In the United States, there was growing frustration on the length of the war and Japanese military atrocities, such as the Batan death march.

Ai Saotome has a house full of notes, photos and other documents that his father left his death at the age of 90 in 2022. His father, Katsumoto Saotome, was a award -winning writer and a Fire Bomb of Tokyo. He gathered accounts of his peers to educate civilian dead and the importance of peace.

Saotome says that the feeling of urgency that his father and other survivors felt is not shared between the young generations.

Although his father has published books on TOKYO’s shooting bombs and his victims, going through his raw material gave him new perspectives and a conscience of the assault of Japan during the war.

She digitizes the equipment at the Center for Raids and War Damage of Tokyo, a museum that her father opened in 2002 after having collected records and artifacts on the attack.

“Our generation does not know much about experience (that of survivors), but at least we can hear their stories and record their voice,” she said. “This is the responsibility of our generation.”

“In about 10 years, when we have a world where nobody remembers anything (on this subject), I hope these documents and files can help,” said Saotome.

The post-war governments provided 60 yen billions (405 billion dollars) of social support to military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for the survivors of the atomic attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The civilian victims of American fire bombs have received nothing.

A group of survivors who wish government recognition of their suffering and their financial aid meet earlier this month, renewing their requests.

No government agency manages civilian survivors or keeps its files. The Japanese courts rejected their requests for compensation of 11 million yen ($ 74,300) each, saying that citizens were supposed to suffer from emergency in the event of an emergency such as war. A group of legislators in 2020 has compiled a project to propose for half a million years ($ 3,380) a punctual payment, but the plan has stalled due to the opposition of certain members of the ruling party.

“This year will be our last chance,” said Yumi Yoshida, who lost his parents and his sister in the bombing during a meeting, referring to the 80th anniversary of the Japanese defeat of the Second World War.

On March 10, 1945, Reiko Muto, a former nurse, was on her bed still carrying her uniform and her shoes. Muto jumped when she heard aerial raid sirens and rushed to the pediatric service where she was a nursing student. The elevators arrested because of the raid, she went up and descended a weakly lit stairwell transporting infants in a basement gymnasium for a shelter.

Soon, trucks of people began to arrive. They were taken to the basement and aligned “like tuna on a market”. Many had serious burns and cried and begged water. The cries and the smell of the burned skin stayed with it for a long time.

Reconorter was the best she could do due to a shortage of medical supplies.

When the war ended five months later, on August 15, she immediately thought: more shooting bombs meant that she could leave the lights on. She finished her studies and worked as a nurse to help children and adolescents.

“What we have experienced should never be repeated,” she says.