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In this week in military history, we look at the U.S. air campaign against the Japanese mainland in 1945 that helped force a surrender of Japan in World War II.
The American decision to begin strategic bombings against the Japanese mainland began in mid-1944, as part of the Marianas campaign. General Henry Arnold and Admiral Chester Nimitz planned a campaign to destroy military industrial targets, weaken Japanese morale, and aid in the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland.
To further that mission, General Curtis LeMay, the commander of the 21st (XXI) Bomber Command, made the decision to move from high altitude precision bombing to low altitude incendiary bombing.
The XXI Bomber Command, after supporting the Okinawa campaign, began firebombing Japan’s main cities in mid-May. Nagoya was hit on May 13th and 16th by over 400 B-29s that destroyed miles of infrastructure, killed over 3,800 Japanese, and left over 470,000 homeless.
On the nights of the 23rd and 25th, over 500 B-29s hit Tokyo, destroying over half of the city, thereby removing it from the XXI Bomber Command’s hit list.
Despite the bombers being briefed and told not to hit the palace, several key government ministries and a majority of the Tokyo Imperial Palace was hit.
The Command's last major raid of May was on Yokohama on May 29th, killing over 1000 Japanese. Overall, the attacks in late May destroyed 94 square miles of building, equal to 1/7 of Japan's total urban area. While the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were singularly more destructive, the firebombing of Tokyo were cumulatively more devastating.
Join us next time for another segment of This Week in History with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library!
