Eighty years on, the focus on the atomic bombs overlooks the impact of the Tokyo air raid.
On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the 21st Bomber Command, led by U.S. Gen. Curtis LeMay, carried out an attack with incendiary bombs in central Tokyo, the world’s most densely populated urban area. At least 83,000 people died that night, perhaps more, as thousands were reduced to ash. That week, Japanese Emperor Hirohito told his close advisors that he wanted to find a way to end the war before it imposed more destruction on his people.
Eighty years later, there remains a strong popular conviction that Japan surrendered in August 1945, ending the Pacific Theater of World War II, because of the two atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The connection has always seemed clear: A few days after the bombs, which killed at least 200,000 people, the Japanese government accepted the Allied ultimatum and terminated the war. Yet from what historians know now, this connection is anything but straightforward.
For more on Richard Overy's new book on the Tokyo Fire Bombing, click on the link below and share your thoughts in the comments below...
