I should probably shorten this one but I found it all so interesting I figured I’d share it in full…
Today’s Ash-Covered Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
On March 9, 1945, as the war in the Pacific entered its climactic phase, American General Curtis LeMay ordered a daring new type of raid on Tokyo. The B-29 bombers would strike at night, flying at 5000 to 8000 feet instead of the usual daylight 30,000-foot altitude. This time the raiders would carry M47 incendiary bombs.
At 5:36 p.m. the first of 333 B-29s took off from Guam’s North Field and headed north, followed at 50-second intervals by eleven more. These were pathfinders. They would demarcate the target area and light it up with a gigantic “X” by dropping canisters of magnesium and phosphorous as well as jellied gasoline (the dreaded napalm).
Undiscovered on their low sweep over southeast Tokyo, the pathfinders began to discharge their fiery markings at 12:08 a.m. The main force of three wings started to arrive at 12:30 a.m. and dropped two-foot-long napalm sticks at altitudes ranging from 4900 to 9200 feet. Under a stiffening wind, flames fanned out rapidly. Within minutes huge balls of fire torched structure after structure and fueled an incandescent tidal wave carrying temperatures exceeding 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The turbulence of the firestorm tossed the bombers hundreds of feet into the air, then pulled them downward. Many fliers vomited, first from airsickness, again when the sickly-sweet stench of burning bodies hit them from the ground. Some crews put on oxygen masks. The last of the B-29s escaped to the south at 3:30 a.m. – only 14 planes were lost.
On the ground Koyo Ishikawa, a cameraman for the police department, was photographing LeMay’s handiwork. “The very streets were rivers of fire,” he said later. “Everywhere one could see flaming pieces of furniture exploding in the heat, while the people themselves plazed like matchsticks.” Many were incinerated in their wooden shelters. Masao Nomura, a reporter for the newspaper Asahi, described the scene after the raid: “Long lines of ragged, ash-covered people straggled along, dazed and silent, like columns of ants. They had no idea where they were going.”
Mrs. Yohie Sekimura, trying to make her way back to her home with her baby on her back, found the bridge across the Sumida River clogged with bodies, the river choked with swollen corpses. Mechanically she walked past bodies of neighbors and could shed no tears. The pool of emergency water at her neighborhood hospital was filled with layers of sprawling bodies. Survivors were scrawling charcoal messages for their missing loved ones on the sidewalk. Her home was in ashes, along with 267,170 others; 15.8 square miles were burned out; 72,489 people died, 130,000 were injured.
Culled from: Day One: Before Hiroshima and After
Now, that’s terrorism for you! The military’s reason for targeting civilians? Factories, which were considered military targets, had been disbanded and workers had been moved into individual houses so productivity was not impacted by the conventional raids. LeMay grew impatient and decided to take out the civilian workplaces in one fiery fell swoop. Unsurprisingly, many of the pilots who took part in the raids were tortured with guilt afterwards. If ever a people had to pay a severe price for the misguided arrogance of its leaders, it was the civilians of Japan.
Awful….