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CIVILIANS!
EVACUATE AT ONCE!
These leaflets are being dropped
to notify you
that your city has been listed for destruction by our
powerful air force.
The bombing will occur within 72 hours. This
advance notice will
give your military authorities ample time to take
necessary defensive measures
to protect you from our inevitable attack. Watch
and see how powerless
they are to protect you. We give the military
clique this notification
of our plans because we know there is nothing they can
do to stop our overwhelming
power and our iron determination. We want you to
see how powerless
the military is to protect you. Systematic
destruction of city after
city will continue as long as you blindly follow your
military leaders,
whose blunders have place you on the very brink of
oblivion.
It is your responsiblility to overthrow the military
government now and
save what is left of your beautiful country. |
But in his book The Night Tokyo Burned,
Hoito
Edoin says that rather then breaking the Japanese will, the fire
bombing
only became one more horror to bear, in an already unbearable
life.
They became fatalistic: if they were going to die, so be it.
They would
die on their feet, not on their knees as slaves. Not that
they felt
they had any chance of being victorious, rather they felt they
were making
their last choice.
Twenty two million people were directly
affected
by the raids. Over 160 sq miles of urban territory were
destroyed.
between 200,000 and 300,000 people lost their lives.
Cities were
being destroyed two or three at a time. Raids were
scheduled at a
rate of every two to three days. Even after the bombing
of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki (Two of five cities that were OFF the regular
target list,
by order of Washington) the raids went on. The raids
continued until
August 14, 1945, the last day of the war.
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