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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,681 posts)
Thu Mar 9, 2023, 03:23 PM Mar 2023

On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the American Army Air Force firebombed Tokyo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_9

• 1945 – World War II: Allied forces carry out firebombing over Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 civilians.

Bombing of Tokyo



Tokyo burns under B-29 firebomb assault, 26 May 1945

Casualties and losses:
43 aircraft destroyed 80,000 to 130,000 civilians killed (most common estimates)
Over one million homeless
267,171 buildings destroyed

The Bombing of Tokyo (東京大空襲, Tōkyōdaikūshū) was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force 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 in human history 16 square miles (41 km2; 10,000 acres) of central Tokyo were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. In comparison, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945 resulted in the immediate death of between 70,000 and 150,000 people.

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On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the American Army Air Force firebombed Tokyo. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2023 OP
My dad was a b29 bombadier jpak Mar 2023 #1
Women and children, mostly. Suffocated as much as burned/ lostnfound Mar 2023 #2

jpak

(41,760 posts)
1. My dad was a b29 bombadier
Thu Mar 9, 2023, 04:28 PM
Mar 2023

Good thing the war ended before he went into combat.

He hated those assholes.

Yup

lostnfound

(16,194 posts)
2. Women and children, mostly. Suffocated as much as burned/
Fri Mar 10, 2023, 03:16 AM
Mar 2023

The men were away fighting. Bomblets of flaming jelly landing on rooftops, massive fire. The fireball sucked all the air up into the sky.

I had the privilege of knowing someone who was a child on the ground that night, watching the massive fire from some miles away. I am grateful he did not live in that huge working class neighborhood or I might not ever have known him.

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