The Night Tokyo Burned

The son of one of the envoys sent to the US just before the Pearl Harbor attack was killed in the Japanese air force. He had been involved in trying to design a plane that could successfully attack the B-29s.

In the first 2,100 sorties, the Japanese destroyed 102 B-29s, which was a loss of about 5% which was considered “acceptable” by the US.

The book talks about the early high-altitude bombing and how it wasn't very effective. They had supposed to have been useful in destroying aircraft factories, but they were basically a failure at doing that.

Apparently there was no one central air defense command for Japan; each army unit in each prefecture had its own air force. Not very efficient.

One of the reasons for flying the bombers at a lower altitude was that they would not have to put up with the high winds of higher altitudes, and this meant they could use a variety of approaches in attacking a target.

Using a lower altitude also allowed the bomb load to be increased by 65%.

”Censorship and the 'thought-control' police prevented the public exchange of information.” Although the people had an idea things were bad, they didn't know just how bad and there was nothing they could do anyhow because to protest was to risk arrest.

There apparently was a plan in Tokyo to spray houses with a fire-retardant chemical. The plan was never put into effect.

The book talks about American pamphlets that were dropped on Japan to try and inform the public about how bad their government was. A different book added a the fact that the having one of the pamphlets in your possession could prove hazardous to your health, to put it mildly.

The primary focus of the book is the firebombing of Tokyo, but since I've covered that in other reviews, I won't add much here.

The book talks about the Emperor wanting to see what had happened to Tokyo, making it look like the Emperor was actually concerned (something which the two-volume set on “Japan's Imperial Conspiracy” strongly question.)

Nagoya was bombed and 25,000 houses were burned in one night. 2700 people died, but the factory the planes had hoped to damage wasn't hurt that bad.

Something which this book has in detail which most others don't is information on the class schism in Tokyo. The people that had been burned out were largely lower-class economically. The government had the upper-class people try to house them, and the slum dwellers were resentful of the wealth of the upper class and there were lootings and riots. From that point on there was no more evacuating people to other people's houses; instead they went to temples, schools, etc.

The book is one of those that takes the position that the home industries were important to the war effort, and burning down the homes and thus the home industries hampered the war effort.

The Osaka bombing is discussed, along with reference to another series of leaflets dropped by the Americans, and that the police confiscated the leaflets so they would “not infect the populace.”

Kobe was considered a good target for firebombing since there were no large rivers or canals, and about 90% of the buildings were wood and paper structures. Again, the results were that the houses were destroyed, but the factories were not.

Not only incendiary bombs were used. Fragmentation bombs were used so that any firefighters trying to put out the fires would be putting themselves in additional danger.

Nagoya was bombed again with the houses again being the main target.

The book talks about the attitude of the Japanese people, and how they had become apathetic about death, which would enable them to take part in civilian defenses without arguing about it.

The Japanese government announced some tax relief for those whose houses and property had been destroyed.

The book also discusses the underground facilities that were built and were being built for the purpose of allowing Japanese industry to continue despite the bombings. (One problem with this concept is that it assumes that the factories would have received the raw materials they needed; this might have been very difficult if the railroads ended up being destroyed, along with much of the road system.)

The book says that 112,000 were killed by the atomic bombs, and perhaps as many as 300,000 by the firebombing (well over 200,000 at a minimum.)

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page