Inferno: The Firebombing of Japan, March 9-August 15, 1945"Targeting Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe, as well as smaller Japanese cities, Major General Curtis LeMay (1906-1990) and his squadrons of B-29 bombers - flying low and carrying nothing but incendiary explosives - unleashed an almost nightly bombing campaign throughout the spring and summer of 1945 that reduced the residential and commercial centers of the nation to rubble and charcoal. Fueled by high winds and napalm, these bombs proved frighteningly effective against the island's traditional wood and paper houses, killing 300,000 men, women, and children, and wounding 500,000 more. During the first raid on Tokyo on March 9, 1945, the resulting firestorm burned nearly sixteen square miles of the city and sent its terrified residents running through the streets in search of shelter. The survivors overcame flames, panicked crowds, falling debris, and choking smoke. Many fled to the city's rivers, where they drowned. With penicillin in short supply, disease ran rampant. In all, 100,000 Japanese civilians perished. Based on vivid interviews with dozens of survivors, Inferno is an unflinching, intimate account of those horrific events as they unfolded in the midnight hours of a desperate world war. It is also an indictment of the decisions and decision-makers who refocused strategy in the Pacific Theater from military targets to innocent civilians." -- Jacket. |
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Air Force air raid air-raid shelter air-raid siren aircraft altitude Americans Aomori army Asakusa atomic bombs attack basement bodies bombers bridge building burn up Japan Captain Kubota Chunichi Shimbun civil defense civilians Curtis LeMay damage dead destroyed district doctor dropped emperor eyes face factory father feet fight fire dragon fire raid firebombs firestorm flames futon head heard Hirohito Hiroshima hospital hour husband Imabari Imperial incendiary International Criminal Court Japanese fighter Kazuko killed Kimie knew Kobe leaflets LeMay LeMay's lived looked machine guns Manabe March 13 March 9 Marianas Mitsubishi Miwa monpei morning mother moved Nagoya Night Tokyo Burned Obata Ochi Osaka penicillin percent railroad rescue Shimbun Shirabe sister smoke soldier station story street Sumida River Sumiko Takako Takeo Taneko target told Toshie Toshiko Tsunoh walked wind wounded XXI Bomber Command