Customer Reviews

Flames over Tokyo

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This book tells the story of how stategiests and generals devised the policy of fire-bombing Japanese cities during World War II to devastate Japanese war industry, cause general economic chaos and destroy civilian morale. The book spends a bit of time discussing the morals behind doing this, but does not try, or really pretend to try, to wrestle the moral issues w/bombing civilian populations (though it acknowledges that this was a big change in prior U.S. strategy). Instead, the book focuses on the methodical way that advocates of incendiary bombing finally got the U.S. Army Air Force to consider abandoning precision bombing technqiues with heavy explosives (which wasn't really working) and instead start experimenting w/incendiary bombs specifically designed to set Japanese cities afire. The book is very careful in showing that it was really quite difficult to put the strategy together w/specific techniques so that it actually worked, and it lays out the steps taken bit by bit to ensure that the fire bombing eventually worked. It also points out that Japan was particularly vulnerable to this kind of attack, due to the wooden construction of its homes, & the crowded conditions of its cities.

The author makes the case that the strategic bombing using incendiary bombs could have (without resorting to the Atomic Bomb) brought Japan to surrender without an invasion by Allied land forces. I'm not convinced; but the book is really quite impressive in laying out how the strategy developed and how impactful it actually was.

As for the moral issues involved here -- there are many; I will not attempt to address them. Truly the impact of these attacks were horrifying (for an excellent cinematic treatment of this subject see the Japanese animated classic, "Grave of the Fireflies," on VHS or DVD). In any case, if you want a fuller understanding of what air power can do in time of war, this book is worth reading.

This is an unique book about a much forgotten episode of WW2. Two years after the Doolittle Raid and half a year before Enola Gay, there were thousands of american bombers over Japan. On the 60 biggest cities they dropped incendiary bombs especially developped for this purpose. In fact, Nagasaki and Hiroshima were chosen for the A-bombs because all the bigger cities were already flattened by these bombardments.

One thing I found disturbing was the discription of how the attitude towards bombing of civilian targets slowly changed. At the start of the war it was a big no-no. Later there was much talk about war industry located in small buildings in urban regions. After the British bombing of Hamburg and Dresden (Germany), all arguments against bombing civilian targets seemed to have disappeared.
In fact, the war industry in Japan came almost to a halt, not because of the damage inflicted to plants and logistics etc. but mainly because millions of workers were killed, wounded or homeless. People fled the cities and didn't show up at work.

I found this book very interesting. I normally don't read about wars or history much. I got interested in it after seeing the movie "Grave of the Fireflies". I didn't care much about the different divisions of the airforce and the names of generals etc. but I found this book exiting to read.

The author's name is E. Bartlett Kerr, and LeMay was a General in the Army Air Force, not the Air Force to correct the entry. This book is written from the perspective of the U.S. Army Air Force and corrects the impression some writers give that LeMay was somehow personally responsible for the incendiary attacks. This books shows the entire scope of the operation, including the politics behind the weapons. It describes the fires, the Japanese politics, the strength of Hirohito in demanding peace, etc. It maintains that the war could have been won without resorting the A-bomb, but misses the theory that the bombs were dropped to keep Russia from dividing up Japan they way the divided up Germany. Readers should also consult: Guillain, Robert (1981). I Saw Tokyo Burning. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. He was a Frenchman living in Japan. His account is a clear picture from a resident's perspective.

Even in my narrow experience, I can see how the U.S.A. has always been incredibly meticulous on strategy-making and execution of the plans in war and non-war times.

In his military man like detached way, E. Bartlett Kerr recorded this U.S. Army Air Forcefs incendiary campaign against Japan that was carried out with their typical rigour overcoming problems such as the fierce gales blowing the skies of Japan.

The mid night of 10 March 1945, people of Tokyo had a rain of napalm that turned into a gigantic flower of the flames.

This superior incendiary bomb, M-69, is, Kerr describes,gheld together in an airplanefs bomb bay in clusters. When dropped from the airplane and released from their cluster, each bomb separated from the others and fell free."
"Then, cc a streamer (a 3-foot-long cloth strip resembling the tail of a kite) popped out of one end and caught in the wind. Extended its full length, the streamer stabilized the bomb and controlled the velocity of descent.h
gAs the bomb passed through the roof of a house or factory, a delay fuse actuated, which, after 3 to 5 seconds, detonated an ejection-ignition charge. By this time the bomb would have come to rest, lying on its side or with its nose buried in the floor.h
gAt detonation, a TNT charge would explode, and magnesium particles would ignite the gasoline gel contained in a cloth sock. Unlike any other bomb, the explosion blew burning gel out of the tail of the casing and _____ like a miniature cannon ____ shot it as far as 100 feet. If the gel struck a combustible surface and was not extinguished it started an intense and persistent fire.h

Great. So, it was those little gstreamersh which have caught fire on the way they fell to the ground that the residents of Tokyo saw in the night of 10 March.
I wonder how fearsome view that was. Especially when it rains fire streams for two hours.

Maybe, I should say gonly two hoursh for the great destruction of 267,171 buildings burned (about 25 percent of the buildings in Tokyo at the time), forcing. 1,008,000 people into homeless, and devastating 83,793 people died as a direct result of the bombing and 40,918 injured by 361,855 M-69s that were dropped by 325 B-29s that is, as someone calculated, 45 M-69s were dropped in every second for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
In another calculation, they say that 2 M-69s were dropped in every square metres in the area that was bombed.

The Tokyo radio agonized: gcwhile noncombatant civilians have been ruthlessly victimized, these expressions [like gBlindh bombing or gindiscriminateh] are now regarded as a gross misnomer in describing the enemyfs savage attacks. It is now thought more appropriate to call them gslaughterh bombing, a natural reflection of the growing popular indignation against their brutal bombing attacks.h

The Tokyo Great Air Raid led to the incendiary bombings on 60 some other cities throughout Japan until when the two Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Japan to capitulate to the Allied Powers under the condition that the Emperor, symbol of Japanfs national polity, should be reserved.