The Air War on Japan

Another in the Crusade in the Pacific series.

The video starts out by talking about the use of planes in WWI.

It was different in WWII, though.

Then it talks about the Dolittle raid.

The airmen who landed in China were decorated for their efforts.

Then it talks about the use of B-29 bombers from China bombing Japan.

When the Marianas were taken, it gave another approach for the B-29s to use.

Then it shows some airstrips being built.

The XXI Bomber Command. At first, they used high-altitude bombing.

Japanese planes attack the U.S. base on Saipan.

Many of the Japanese raids on U.S. bases were made at night.

U.S. carrier pilots are briefed on targets they are to hit in Japan. The film includes actual speaking from the person in the front of the room.

Then it shows the planes attacking one of the factory targets.

An enemy airfield is attacked.

Harbor installations and shipping are also attacked.

The seizure of Iwo Jima allowed fighter planes to escort the bombers. The film also talks about downed pilots being rescued by subs, noting that around 500 pilots were rescued that way.

XXI Bomber Command's operation center.

In this particular attack, some 300 B-29s are going to be involved.

P-51 fighters accompanied the B-29s on this April raid.

A Japanese plane is shot down.

Then it talks about the firebombing raids which started in March. Then it says the attacks were stopped since they were not effective on military targets (????)

Then the video gets back to talking about raids on military targets in Tokyo.

Then it talks about the massive destruction in Tokyo caused by the bombing (but the video is implying that the destruction was due to daylight bombing.)

Then it talks about how damaged B-29's were able to use Iwo Jima for emergency landings.

This B-29 ditched in the ocean near the island.

A different B-29 lands on the airfield, but bursts into flame shortly thereafter.

The U.S. 3rd Fleet bombards Japanese targets.

Suddenly we're elsewhere.

Einstein.

The first test of an atomic bomb.

Then the video talks about LeMay's working on the planning for the dropping of the atomic bomb. (Yet, in all other references to this clip that I have seen, the clip seems to be talking about LeMay's working out the incendiary bombing plans, not the atomic bomb plans.)

Then the video discusses the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The video then talks about the Japanese surrender, and plans that were made for the surrender ceremonies.

The Japanese provide the U.S. with charts of Tokyo Bay.

This is a very puzzling episode in the series. It almost seems to me like there was a deliberate attempt made to downplay the entire incendiary series of bombings. My guess is that they didn't want the public to know that the incendiary bombings killed tens of thousands of civilians. The video implies that the bombings were all aimed at military targets, not civilians.

This is probably the most deliberate effort I have seen in all the stuff I have looked at on the Pacific Theater to sort of re-write history; an American form of historical revisionism.

I went back to get the exact wording:

“Beginning in March, B-29s from the Marianas began dropping incendiaries on Japan at night, but these night attacks were discontinued since the results were not particularly impressive from the standpoint of damage done to military targets.”

That's the exact wording, and it is basically an absolute lie. Some 66 Japanese cities were firebombed. The results were most definitely impressive, especially since damage done was usually measured in square miles of a city destroyed. Of course, most of the people killed in those attacks were civilians. Granted, many civilians did work in war industries, but the attacks did not target factories; they target the civilian population and were meant to do that.

This is the first time I have found such a blatant rewriting of history in any American media coverage of the Pacific Theater.

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