Final Assault on the Rising Sun: Combat Diaries of B-29 Air Crews Over Japan (1995)

”At Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, a Japanese village was built. A New York architect, Antonin Raymond, who had studied in Japan for eighteen years, was hired to design the houses and prepare precise specifications. The houses were built in accurate detail.” The purpose of this was to test the incendiary devices that were being developed, and also to try to determine if the Japanese could put out the fires quickly enough.

The book also recalls how one of the B-29's was affected by the thermals caused by the firestorms over Tokyo. One plan was pushed upwards about 5000 feet before the pilot could get control over the plan again. “It was a great relief to exit the smoke, and leave the odor of burning wood, debris, and burning flesh behind.” In other words, from thousands of feet up the crews could smell what the fire was doing.

The book talks about the mining of Japanese waters by B-29, and that the public never really was fully informed about that. There was an actual Operation Starvation that involved the mines, although some of the mines were used to prevent Japanese ships from sailing to Okinawa and helping there.

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