On his sixth birthday 80 years ago, Shizuko Nisheyo clung to his mother as the US B -29 bombers started a firstorm, which converted humans to Ash and Tokyo into a barren land.
Five months before the United States demolished nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the night raid on 9–10 March 1945 was the most deadly of World War II using traditional bombs.
According to Japanese and American historians, at least 80,000 people died, and exceeded 100,000.
Nishio, now at the age of 86, was one of the lucky people. She was the only survivor in the 20 children’s kindergarten category.
The night before the raid, she felt “excited” about her birthday and was eager to start primary school.
The retired vet and medical researcher said, “Then at night, when we were in bed, my father asked us to flee the primary school in front of his house,” the retired veterinarian and medical researcher said.
The shelter was already packed.
The 19 -year -old cousin of Nishio and a nurse stopped, but the rest of the groups moved to the basement of another school.
After a wave of bombers, the wave dropped the bombs that set fire to the city, causing 16 square miles (4,145 hectares) of the city.
“We felt that my cousin and nurse would be fine,” said Nishio.
Hours later they were “dead in a boiled kingdom” from 200 people, cooked alive in shelter from the fierce fire outside.
walking on the moon
Before dawn, the morning of his birthday, Nishio and his family emerged to search for “chartered bodies” like “Human Logs”, he said.
“There was nothing”, he said. “It was like the surface of the moon”.
The author of the British historian Richard Ovri, “Rain of Rin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and Japan’s Surrender” said that “an invincible struggle” was intentional “intentional”.
“By the time the US Air Force raided Tokyo, the US Air Force was trying to destroy Japanese factories or attack the Japanese ports. But they were very unsuccessful,” Ovri told AFP.
The US Air Force General Curtis Lemu decided to “attack low attacks, with fire, and to burn the cities,” Ovri said.
“By burning them, you will kill the workers, will de-house them. You will destroy small factories scattered around domestic residential areas. And it will somehow contribute to reducing the Japanese war economy.”
In August 1945, due to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after the surrender of Japan next month, Tokyo’s firebombing is often ignored.
Even in Germany, Hamburg and Dresseden attacks similar to Americans and British – in which fewer people were killed – are better known, Ovri said.
Tokyo “was the worst traditional bombing attack of World War II. We need to be more aware of it,” said Ovri.
“There is no doubt that the citizens were a deliberate goal,” he said.
‘Terrible red’
Yoko Kitamura was eight years old at the time of bombing.
She remembers the sky “terrible red” and hearing that the river was “filled with bodies”.
The 88 -year -old told AFP, “When I was looking at the sky in fear, the fire was going on.” “In our region, it was bright as it was day”.
Two months later, on 24 May, 1945, the district of Tokyo was also attacked with bombs setting fire.
One fell to him and “like a sparkler” scattered flames.
“One fell on a person in front of me, whose clothes caught fire,” Kitamura said.
” This is catching fire! ” I thought
Later, Kitamura became a doctor, but she always hated the ambulance because it reminded her of the scream of an air raid siren.
“What a silly mankind, kills each other”, Kitamura said, today after being asked about wars.
The Nisheyo agreed.
“When I was watching the television of Ukraine’s position, a little girl was crying in a shelter … I thought, I am this!” He said.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
