Excerpts From Tokyo Firebombing Special

As mentioned in yesterday’s post about the 63rd anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo, TBS aired a docudrama special last night about Koyo Ishikawa, a police photographer who took 33 famous photographs of the bombing raid’s aftermath.

Based on the descriptions and commercials I had seen about the docudrama, I had been expecting it to focus on a few characters and play out like most historical made-for-TV movies. However, I was pleased to discover that about half of the broadcast time was spent on interludes containing historical information and interviews with survivors, providing a wider view of what happened than the drama portion.

Here are a few excerpts from the special:

Excerpt 1

Encountering the military police:

• Ishikawa rushes to the scene of one of the early bombing raids against Tokyo. As he begins to take photographs, angry members of the dreaded Kempetai military police appear and declare that he is not allowed to take pictures. Insisting that Ishikawa is acting under police department orders proves futile, and Ishikawa and his friend are beaten.
• In a later scene of the drama, Ishikawa is assaulted by a military policeman while taking photographs of charred corpses in the Sumida area. However, in that scene Ishikawa’s anger at the soldier prevails and he is allowed to keep taking photographs.

Excerpt 2
An explanation of how Curtis LeMay changed the tactics used by American B-29 groups:

• The first part of the clip displays some photos showing dead bodies after B-29′s hit the Yurakucho area of Tokyo. It is described as indiscriminate bombing of civilians, and is attributed to Curtis LeMay’s orders.
• The second part of the clip explains LeMay’s switch from high-altitude precision bombing to low-altitude incendiary attacks. A veteran recalls LeMay’s rage towards crew members who complained that such a drop in altitude would be suicidal.

Excerpt 3

Sumida River firestorm:

• The first part of the clip is from the drama portion of the special, with the main character witnessing a group of people dying on a bridge.
• The drama fades into clips of survivors retelling the horror of seeing people burning alive on the Kototoi Bridge. One man recalls the monstrous screams from people burning/falling into the river.

Excerpt 4

The film crew showed photos taken by Ishikawa to surviving American B-29 crew members who took part in the Tokyo bombing raid. They reacted as follows:

Overall, I thought the docudrama was fair in the way it portrayed events. Unlike the Sankei Shinbun editorial from yesterday’s post, it did not have a tone of accusation or anger to it, and it did mention Japan’s use of indiscriminate bombing in China. It didn’t try to shove a political view into the faces of viewers, but it did have an anti-war message (including a mention of movement to ban cluster bombs during the ending credits).

I hope that TBS translates it into English and makes it available to foreign TV channels such as PBS, BBC, and the History Channel, as it would be good for a wider audience to learn more about the March 10th bombing.