Revisiting Western atrocities | Night of fire in Tokyo: U.S. burned tens of thousands in bombing

Pars Today – The bombing of Tokyo during World War II is considered one of the largest and most devastating aerial attacks in history.

According to Pars Today, the Tokyo bombing in World War II, particularly Operation Meetinghouse on the night of March 9–10, 1945, was one of the largest and most destructive air raids in history. During this attack, 279 American B-29 bombers appeared over the city and dropped nearly 1,700 tons of incendiary (napalm) bombs on the sleeping city.

This attack was part of an escalation of previous air raids on Japan that had begun in June 1944. In those earlier attacks, the U.S. Air Force had focused on precision bombing targeting Japan’s industrial facilities. However, overall, these attacks were not very successful. Accordingly, General Curtis LeMay, who commanded the bombing operations over Japan, decided to change the U.S. Air Force’s tactics. He replaced precision bombing with area and conventional bombing. He chose the night of March 9 and the early hours of March 10 for Operation Meetinghouse due to dry and windy weather, which allowed the fire to spread effectively across Tokyo’s wooden structures.

The primary target of Operation Meetinghouse was the densely populated residential areas of Tokyo, which were largely made up of wooden houses. The extensive use of incendiary bombs caused a massive, uncontrollable fire that ultimately killed over 100,000 people and injured around one million. Most of the victims were civilians, making this operation the most destructive aerial attack in human history.

The U.S. air raid destroyed 16 square miles of Tokyo and is recognized as the deadliest aerial bombing in history in terms of human casualties. The attack was rapid, deadly, and merciless. According to eyewitnesses, almost everything—from wooden houses and tatami mats to people and animals—burned in Tokyo. Hario Nihei, a survivor who was eight years old at the time, told CNN in 2020 that children burned while clinging to their parents. The smell of burning flesh was so strong that American bomber pilots had to use oxygen masks to avoid vomiting. Historical accounts detail how people who sought refuge in water were boiled alive, while others were crushed in the crowd trying to escape the firestorm. Most victims died from carbon monoxide poisoning and oxygen deprivation caused by the blaze.

The human scale of this disaster was immense. Countless families were burned alive, with children and the elderly trapped in the flames, and Tokyo’s streets transformed into a sea of fire. Eyewitness accounts describe charred bodies and harrowing scenes. This event was not merely a military attack but a mass slaughter, leaving profound psychological and social impacts on the Japanese people. Many survivors struggled with the physical and emotional consequences of the tragedy for the rest of their lives.

The U.S. justification for this attack was based on the need to hasten the end of the war and break the morale of the Japanese people. The argument was that by destroying cities and creating psychological pressure, the Japanese government would be forced to surrender. However, from a legal and ethical perspective, this logic is indefensible, as targeting civilians as a tool of political pressure constitutes clear use of terror and violence against innocent people. Many historians and analysts after the war have emphasized that the Tokyo bombing, in terms of casualties, was even more horrific than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In Hiroshima, around 70,000 people were killed instantly by the explosion, but in Tokyo, the number of victims exceeded 100,000, and a large part of the city was reduced to ashes. General LeMay later admitted to the brutality of the air raid on Tokyo, yet he continued to defend his decision. In an interview, he said, “Killing Japanese people at that time didn’t bother me much. I think if we had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.” After the end of World War II, General LeMay was celebrated as a hero and continued his career in the U.S. military.

In Tokyo, a group of survivors of the air raid opened the Tokyo Raids and War Damage Center in 2002. This small museum was established to commemorate the deadly air attack and to honor its victims.

From the perspective of international law and the ethics of war, this operation has been seriously raised as a war crime. Fundamental principles of the law of war, particularly the Hague Conventions and customary international law, emphasize the prohibition of directly targeting civilians. In the bombing of Tokyo, unlike precision strikes on military or industrial targets, a policy of “area bombing” was employed, aimed at the widespread destruction of urban infrastructure and the creation of terror among the population.

Strategically, the bombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities with incendiary bombs severely reduced the country’s industrial production and weakened Japan’s military capabilities. However, the key question remains: can this military gain justify the mass killing of civilians? The answer from many legal scholars and historians is no. They argue that even in wartime, humanitarian principles must be upheld, and no military objective can legitimize the slaughter of civilians. For this reason, some researchers classify this attack among the major war crimes of the twentieth century.

Ultimately, the bombing of Tokyo must be considered one of the greatest war crimes of the twentieth century. This attack not only claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people but also violated fundamental principles of humanity and international law.