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Perdition: A Forgotten Tokyo Firebombing Raid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Richard Sams
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On April 13, 2016, about one hundred elderly people assembled in front of a stone memorial plaque in a park in Tokyo's Toshima ward. Although their number has gradually diminished, they have been meeting on this day every year for more than two decades. Their purpose is to remember the victims of a massive firebombing raid that reduced three quarters of Toshima to ashes on the night of April 13-14, 1945. Most of them are now in their late eighties or early nineties, but they have vowed to continue to hold this meeting, the Nezuyama Small Memorial Service, for as long as they are able.

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Research Article
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Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 12 , June 2016, e5
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2016

References

Notes

1 Wesley Craven and James Cate, ed., The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 5 (1953), p. 636.

2 E. Bartlett Kerr, Flames Over Tokyo (New York, 1991), p. 226.

3 Since there was apparently no Perdition #2, it is referred to below as Perdition.

4 In Toshima ward alone, 778 people died and 161,661 were made homeless.

5 Quoted in Michael Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon (Yale University Press, 1987), p. 248.

6 Tokyo on November 29-30, 1944, and Nagoya and Kobe, on January 3 and February 4, 1945, respectively.

7 Quoted in Max Hastings, Nemesis: The Battle for Japan 1944-45 (Harper Perennial, 2008), p. 333.

8 Curtis LeMay and Mackinlay Cantor, Mission with LeMay: My Story (Doubleday, 1965), p. 368.

9 Tactical Mission Report No. 67 (TMR 67), p. 1, “Importance of the Target”.

10 Quoted in Sherry, op. cit., p. 248.

11 Tōkyōto Sensaishi, (Tokyo War Damage Records; 1953), p. 452.

12 Nippon Times, March 31, 1945, p. 3.

13 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi (Tokyo Air Raid Damage Records; 1973), Vol. 2, p. 539.

14 United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), Field Report Covering Air Raid Protection and Allied Subjects, Tokyo, Japan (Civilian Defense Division, March 1947), p. 155. The USSBS estimate is 644,040 people, based on an “average of 4.5 persons per home,” but considering the wartime decline in Tokyo's population, this average is too high. My estimate is based on 3.5 persons per home.

15 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 237.

16 Uchida Hyakken, Tōkyō Shōjin (Tokyo Conflagration; Chuko Bunko, 2010), p. 136.

17 Ibid., p. 135.

18 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 278.

19 According to TMR 67, the 73rd and 313th Wings started bombing at 11.18p.m. and 11.23p.m., respectively.

20 The fires destroyed the red brick university building and the auditorium section of Building No. 1 was burned out. Most of Building No. 1, however, survived the fires and it is still in use today.

21 Daietsu Kazuji, Tōkyō Daikūshū ni okeru Shōbōtai no Katsuyaku (Efforts of the Fire Brigades in the Tokyo Air Raids; 1957) p. 299.

22 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 308.

23 The lengths of the six air raids were: February 25 (114 minutes), March 10 (173 minutes), April 13-14 (219 minutes), April 15-16 (133 minutes), May 24-25 (119 minutes), May 25-26 (155 minutes).

24 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 236.

25 Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 848.

26 Statistics of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

27 Torii Tami, Shōwa Nijūnen (Showa 20; Shisosha Bunko, 2015), Vol. 8, p. 9; Yomiuri Shimbun, ed., Shōwashi no Tenno (The Showa Emperor; Chuko Bunko, 2011), Vol. 2, p. 111.

28 Tōkyō Daikūshū no Zenkiroku (Complete Record of the Tokyo Air Raids; Iwanami Shoten, 1992), p. 112. Ishikawa was on friendly terms with the Superintendent-General, so he may well have had access to confidential information.

29 Kido Koichi, Kidō Kōichi Nikki (DIary of Kido Koichi; Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1966), Vol. 2, p. 1194.

30 USSBS, Economic Warfare Section, War Division, Department of Justice, Confidential Report, June 30, 1943, “Re: The Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro Stations, Tokyo, Japan”.

31 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 494.

32 Torii Tami, op. cit., p. 10.

33 Nippon Times, April 16,1945. The rebuilding of Meiji Shrine after the war was finally completed in 1958.

34 See John Dower, Japan in War and Peace (New York, 1993), pp. 76-80. The Americans were of course aware of the existence of Riken Institute, but did not find out about Japan's atomic bomb project until after the war.

35 Edward Seidensticker, Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989 (Tuttle, 2010), p. 412.

36 See Frederick S. Litten, “Starving the Elephants: The Slaughter of Animals in Ueno Zoo”, Asia-Pacific Journal, September 21, 2009.

37 Saotome Katsumoto, Haroran no Tōkyō Daikūshū (Halloran and the Tokyo Air Raids; Shin Nippon Shuppansha, 2012), p. 44.

38 Nippon Times, April 15, 1945.

39 Takami Jun, Haisen Nikki (Diary of Defeat; Chuko Bunko, 2005), p. 166.

40 Nippon Times, April 15, 1945.

41 Spokane Daily Chronicle, April 14, 1945.

42 Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1945.

43 Aoki Tetsuo, “1945 Shigatsu 13-14 Tōkyō Kūshū no Mokuhyō to Songai Jittai” (Aims of and Damage Caused by the Tokyo Air Raid of April 13-14, 1945), Seikatsu to Bunka (Life and Culture) Vol. 15, 2005, p. 3-19.

44 TMR 67, p. 6.

45 USSBS, Entry 59, Security-Classified Damage Assessment Reports, 1945; Tokyo Report No. 3-a (20), 4 June 1945: Preliminary Damage Assessment Report No. 2.

46 USSBS, Damage Assessment Report No. 81 (June 7). The Tokyo arsenal complex remained on the target list and was bombed again on August 8 (Mission 320) and August 10 (Mission 323).

47 USSBS, Headquarters 20th Air Force (Chemical Section) Special Report on The Incendiary Attacks Against Japanese Urban Industrial Areas (December 13, 1945).

48 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 1, p. 282.

49 Ibid., p. 744.

50 USSBS, Analysis of Incendiary Phase of Operations against Japanese Urban Areas, Report No. 1-c (30), p. 30.

51 Saotome Katsumoto, Tōkyō Daikūshū (The Great Tokyo Air Raid; Iwanami Shinsho, 1989), p. 152.

52 For victims' accounts of the inferno on Kototoi Bridge, see Richard Sams, “Saotome Katsumoto and the Firebombing of Tokyo,” Asia-Pacific Journal, March 16, 2015.

53 USSBS, Index Section 7, Entry 47, Security-Classified Joint Target Group Air Target Analyses, 1944-45: Targets in the Tokyo Area, Report No. 1.

54 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 4, p. 862.

55 Saotome Katsumoto, op. cit., p. 22.

56 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 324.

57 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 227.

58 Ibid., p. 254.

59 Daietsu Kazuji, op. cit., p. 310.

60 Ibid., p. 311.

61 Nissan Chemical Industries Company History Editorial Committee, Hachijūnenshi (80 Years' History, 1969). Quoted in Aoki, op. cit., p. 17.

62 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 230.

63 Ibid., p. 253. Itsutsumata roundabout is now the Mutsumata intersection.

64 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 243.

65 Ibid., p. 232.

66 Nezuyama Small Memorial Service, Hisai Shōgenshū Dainishū (Victims' Testimonies Vol. 2), p. 55-56.

67 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 242.

68 http://www.powresearch.jp/en/archive/pilot/index.html

69 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 230.

70 USSBS, Field Report Covering Air Raid Protection and Allied Subjects, Tokyo, Japan (Civilian Defense Division, March 1947), p. 155.

71 The maximum-effort incendiary raids of April 15-16, May 23-24, and May 25-56.

72 Tōkyōto Sensaishi, p. 478.

73 Yoshimura Akira, Tōkyō no Sensō (Tokyo's War; Chikuma Bunko, 2005), p. 25-26.

74 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 2, p. 223.

75 Ibid., p. 273.

76 Ibid., p. 224.

77 Ibid., p. 287.

78 Nippon Times, May 5, 1945.

79 Tōkyō Daikūshū Sensaishi, Vol. 4, p. 853.

80 Interview with the author, October 2015.

81 Arima Yorichiku ed., Tōkyō Daikūshū Jūkyūnin no Shōgen (The Great Tokyo Air Raid: Nineteen Testimonies; Kodansha 1971), Matsuura Sozo, “Kakarezaru Tōkyō Daikūshū ” (The Great Tokyo Air Raid Nobody Writes About), p. 426.

82 Based on statistics in USSBS, The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1946, p. 33. The total number of people killed by the other 92 urban attacks is estimated to be 89,050.