Tokyo remembers

from Justin McCurry in Tokyo
11 March 2005, The Guardian

Hundreds of people gathered in Tokyo yesterday to remember the night 60 years ago when American bombers killed 100,000 of its people in incendiary air raids.

Survivors of the raids burned incense and prayed at a ceremony attended by Prince Akishino, the grand son of Hirohito, Japan's emperor during the second world war.

The raids, along with those on Dresden in Germany a month earlier, demonstrated the allies' willingness to kill large numbers of civilians to secure victory in the war.

Beginning just after midnight on March 10, 1945, more than 300 B-29 bombers dropped an estimated 500,000 incendiary devices on Tokyo, setting off fires that swept through densely populated neighbourhoods of wooden houses.

An estimated 40,000 people were injured and 270,000 homes were destroyed.

Kisaburo Nakane, who lost six members of his family in the attacks, said: "It is painful to talk about our experiences, but we want generations of people who came after the war to know how important it is to value human life."

Despite causing huge loss of life, the Tokyo raids do not receive the same attention as the nuclear bombings in August 1945 of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yesterday's anniversary barely merited a mention in the local media.