Posts Tagged ‘bombing’

Pre-bombing Hiroshima recreated with computer graphics

A brief clip from this morning’s “Mezamashi TV” showing a CG recreation of what Hiroshima looked like before it was destroyed by an atomic bomb:

The interview the creator of the CG project (who lived near ground zero but was away from the city on the day of the bombing) via telephone and he repeats an opinion one frequently hears about the issue: it is important to teach younger people that nuclear weapons are horrible. By creating a representation of what was lost in the bombing, he hopes to remind people that such a thing should never be repeated.
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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.

March 10: An Anniversary To Remember

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the first large-scale U.S. bombing raid of Tokyo, an event that killed some 100,000 civilians. Several marking the anniversary were held in Sumida Ward, the area of Tokyo that was hardest hit by the firebombing. Mainichi’s English edition has an article up about a giant peace mural that has gone on display at the Sumida War Office.

There was a thought-provoking Sankei Shinbun editorial yesterday on Google News about war responsibility for the bombings, which I have translated into English below [contextual links and video added]:

March 10th marks the 63rd anniversary of the indiscriminate bombing of Tokyo by American forces, in which 100,000 people died. Similar to the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings (August 6th and 8th), it is a date that the Japanese people should never forget.

American long range bombers began full-scale bombing of the Japanese home islands after the summer of 1944. The early air raids were precision attacks on munitions factories, but that policy changed in January of 1945 with the appointment of Major General Curtis LeMay as commander of the bombing operations against Japan. LeMay adopted a new policy of indiscriminate bombing raids that targeted densely populated areas.

This was an inhumane policy that involved the dropping of incendiary bombs and carpet bombings aimed at closing up victims’ routes of escape. Indiscriminate bombing of this kind was used against Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and many other cities. The combined civilian death toll from the firebombing and atomic bomb attacks exceeded 500,000.

In 1922, a conference of Japan, America, Great Britain and other countries drew up the Hague Rules of Air Warfare. Under Article 24 of the agreement, aerial bombing of non-military targets was prohibited. The American government had justified the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings as having taken place “to bring a quick end to the war.” However, it is very doubtful that the bombing of non-combatants was truly necessary at a point of the war in which there were already many signs that Japan had lost.

In Mirror for Americans, Japan, a book banned from publication during the American occupation, author Helen Mears stated that after the March bombing of Tokyo, the American military’s enemy was not merely the Japanese military: the general civilian population of Japan had become the primary target of the war. Mears also wrote that America knew of surrender negotiations Japan was attempting via Moscow, and the atomic bombings were dropped as part of America’s political conflict with the Soviet Union.

Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes For Tomorrow), a film concerning the postwar trial of Lt. General Tasuku Okada for the wartime execution of American B-29 pilots, has been showing in theaters across Japan since March 1st. It is a film that raises questions about how leaders ought to act and the inhumanity of indiscriminate bombing. There has been a high interest level in the film among those who experienced war as well as younger Japanese viewers. It has been also said that the film received great applause when it was screened at film festivals in America.

The issue of responsibility for the indiscriminate bombing during the Pacific War should be re-examined, particularly by the younger generations in Japan and America.

[I am not a professional translator, so it's probably far from a perfect translation. However, I think I was able to get most of the meaning down correctly...]

A note for readers with access to Japanese TV: A special docudrama about a photographer who took famous photos of the Tokyo Firebombing will be airing tonight at 9:00PM on TBS. The Japan Times has mentioned that the film will recreate the firestorm that destroyed Sumida ward using state-of-the-art computer graphics.