bombing of japan ww2

Although the precise death toll is unknown, conservative estimates suggest that the firestorm caused by incendiary bombs killed at least 80,000 people, and likely more than 100,000, in a single night; some one million people were left homeless. After ineffective bombing of Japan in 1944, U.S. General Curtis LeMay decided to use a new tactic, which was to carry out massive night bombing of Japanese cities with incendiary napalm bombs from low altitude. 10 August 1945: 70 B-29s bomb the arsenal complex. Both he and Dr. Karacas are Japan scholars who have lived in Japan and studied at Japanese universities. This was not the first American bombing of the Japanese capital. Aerial shots of bombed Mitsubishi aircraft plant at Nagoya near Tokyo. 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. Allied bombing of Japan was halted on 11th August because of bad weather – and then this situation was confirmed to allow negotiations to continue. [30][31], After the war, Tokyo struggled to rebuild. On the 14th 1,014 bombers TOKYO — It was not Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but in many ways, including lives lost, it was just as horrific. I would also like some sites with some solid statistics and numbers regarding the amount of people that died immediately, later because of cancer and etc, and how many would have died by land invasion. Bombing of Tokyo, (March 9–10, 1945), firebombing raid (codenamed “Operation Meetinghouse”) by the United States on the capital of Japan during the final stages of World War II, often cited as one of the most destructive acts of war in history, more destructive than the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, or … A Fu-Go (ふ号[兵器], fugō [heiki], lit. R.G. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. [12] These trials demonstrated the effectiveness of incendiary bombs against wood-and-paper buildings, and resulted in Curtis LeMay ordering the bombers to change tactics to utilize these munitions against Japan. Strategic Bombing of Japan But it was in the Pacific theatre, and specifically in Japan, that the full brunt of air power would be felt. Japan attack to Pearl Harbor is unprovoked and also without declaring war, which meant that at the time Japan attack Pearl Harbor, Japan and US is not in the state of war. As the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, General Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. The air attack raid was one of the longest in the history of WWII. On August 6, 1945, just days after the Potsdam Conference ended, the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb known as “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of … RE: WW2 atomic bombing of japan : At LindasHelp I can do all your assignments, labs, and final exams too. Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate, eds. The Japanese later called this the “Night of the Black Snow.”. The choice then was to do nothing or try it and accept high US and allied casualties. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb, a uranium gun-type bomb nicknamed “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima. But the atomic bombing of Hiroshima occurred just five days later, and Toyama's tragic story was all but lost in the closing days of World War … On August 28, the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers began. Let us know. [33], After the war, Japanese author Katsumoto Saotome, a survivor of 10 March 1945 firebombing, helped start a library about the raid in Koto Ward called the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. The famed “Doolittle Raid” by 16 medium-sized aircraft under Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle had bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942. All countries used bombing during WW2, so the argument could be that the conventional bombing was no more, or less, justified than the bombing of other countries on both sides. By the 14th the situation was no clearer and US bombing missions were resumed. Please site your statistics and arguments. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation. The bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945 was the second time that an atomic bomb was used in world history (with Hiroshima, Japan, having been destroyed three days prior on August 6th). Questions or concerns? 9, 1945, firebombing was hardly a new tactic. [10], The high-altitude bombing attacks using general-purpose bombs were observed to be ineffective by USAAF leaders due to high winds—later discovered to be the jet stream—which carried the bombs off target. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, with each raid consisting from a few dozen to over 150 bombers per raid in 9,513 sorties dropping a mix of 21,593 high-explosive and incendiary bombs, killing 11,889 citizens, injuring 14,100 more, and destroying over 30,000 homes, and bombing 30 universities and middle schools. LeMay decided to attack Tokyo by night at low altitude, stripping his bombers of guns and armor to accommodate a larger bomb load. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to 45 km/h). The raid did little damage to Japan's war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States. Skip-bombing involved fitting a Zero fighter with a 550-pound bomb, which was to be released 200 to 300 yards from an enemy ship. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks (1984), sfn error: no target: CITEREFMiller2001 (, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKaracas2000 (, 1985 Narita International Airport bombing, a seaborne, small-scale air raid on Tokyo (the "Doolittle Raid"), "March 9, 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy", "Firebombs Over Tokyo: America's 1945 attack on Japan's capital remains undeservedly obscure alongside Hiroshima and Nagasaki", "Tokyo WWII firebombing, the single most deadly bombing raid in history, remembered 70 years on", "The Japanese Village at Dugway Proving Ground: An Unexamined Context to the Firebombing of Japan", "A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities & the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq", "9 March 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy", "This month in history: The firebombing of Dresden", "Bombings Worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima", "1945 Tokyo Firebombing Left Legacy of Terror, Pain", Author sees parallels between prewar, nuclear indoctrination, "Fire Bombings and Forgotten Civilians: The Lawsuit Seeking Compensation for Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids 焼夷弾空襲と忘れられた被災市民―東京大空襲犠牲者による損害賠償請求訴訟", "Japanese government says 1945 Tokyo bombing was 'against humanitarian principles. V: The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945", "The Strategic Air War Against Germany and Japan: A Memoir", Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Rape during the Soviet occupation of Poland, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bombing_of_Tokyo&oldid=995386622, World War II aerial operations and battles of the Pacific theatre, Aerial operations and battles of World War II by town or city, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 80,000 to 130,000 civilian killed (most common estimates). The Bombing of Tokyo (東京大空襲, Tōkyōdaikūshū) was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II.Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing raid … The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. Bombing raids February 4 raid After trials on the Japanese Village set on the Dugway Proving Grounds, Curtis LeMay of the American Forces ordered the B-29 bombers to drop incendiary bombs to burn Japan's mostly wood-and-paper houses, in an "experimental" carpet bombing against Kobe on … Corrections? The raid was retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Accounts of the American justification for dropping a second bomb in Nagasaki. The work I provide is guaranteed to be plagiarism free, original, and written from scratch. [2], Over 50% of Tokyo's industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods; firebombing cut the whole city's output in half. 2 April 1945: 100 B-29s bomb the Nakajima aircraft factory. These articles have not yet undergone the rigorous in-house editing or fact-checking and styling process to which most Britannica articles are customarily subjected. The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher toll: 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. Articles such as this one were acquired and published with the primary aim of expanding the information on Britannica.com with greater speed and efficiency than has traditionally been possible. In August 1945, during the final throes of World War II, America, backed by the Allies, dropped two atom bombs on Japan. Unissued / Unused material. [27], The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9 March 1945 was the single deadliest air raid of World War II,[28] greater than Dresden,[29] Hamburg, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki as single events. Rodden, Robert M.; John, Floyd I.; Laurino, Richard (May 1965). On the 14th 1,014 bombers hit the Japanese mainland, the largest raid in the Pacific theatre. [36][37], In 2007, 112 members of the Association for the Bereaved Families of the Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids brought a class action against the Japanese government, demanding an apology and 1.232 billion yen in compensation. Of central Tokyo 16 square miles (41 km ; 10,000 acres) were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. Interested in participating in the Publishing Partner Program? [9], The initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command, but these could not reach Tokyo. 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