Firebombing+of+Japan

=The Firebombing of Japan=

__Goals:__
President Roosevelt only wanted one thing at the time, as much destruction to Japan as possible in order to win the war. He decided to drop bombs on multiple cities in Japan.

__Impact:__
The first firebombing attack took place on February 3, 1945 on the Japanese city of Kobe. Japanese cities were susceptible to attack to their crumbling Navy and air defense capabilities.

The official toll of the firebombing of Japan was 83,000, however, historians generally agree that the death toll of the bombing was closer to 100,000. The target, and majority of casualties were civilians. The Napalm-filled bombs, dropped on major cities like Tokyo, left nothing standing for 16 square miles. The firebombing of Japanese cities caused more destruction and casualties than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is considered to be the most devastating air raid in military history.

"Those images in my mind can never be erased," Nihei, a citizen living in Tokyo who escaped a firebombing attack with her family intact, said, "I can see myself there, the flames all around me. And I'm running for my life" Nihei stated that the bombing showed that war, "was never justifiable".

The Japanese survivors of the attack expressed little resentment towards the U.S., following the firebombings. They accepted the attacks as a "tragedy of war".

- picture of B29 bombers bombing Japan in World War II.

__Planes Use in Firebombings__
The journey was a far travel and there was no way the B-17 bomber could carry that much weight and fly that far of a distance. So they looked at the B29 superbomber which could do both the jobs president Roosevelt wanted to end the war with Japan. Many planes that made the bombing missions, stripped themselves of extra armor and defensive weaponry so they would be able to stay in flight carrying the load of bombs. The Superbomber was also equipped with a new radar which hadn't been used before and a new engine that no other planes have seen before.([|http://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/firebombing/firebombing1.html)]



__Statistics of Destruction:__
Nearly 67 Japanese cities were attacked in the firebombing. Some of those who suffered the most destruction were:

1 - Toyama (99% destroyed) 2 - Fukui (86% destroyed) 3 - Tokushima (85.2% destroyed) 4 - Fukuyama (80.9% destroyed) 5 - Kofu (78.6% destroyed)

- A complete list of the cities that were attack and the damage they sustained, can be found here: **http://www.ditext.com/japan/napalm.html/**

B-25 Mitchell picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/59/B-25B_at_National_Museum_of_the_USAF.jpg Photo gallery of Kawasaki and Yokohama bombing :http://history.independence.co.jp/ww2/eng/phtop.html#raid2 [|]