MANY BOMBS ON CAPITAL

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 174, 20 April 1942, Page 5

MANY BOMBS ON CAPITAL

Raid From Several Directions ENEMY ACCOUNTS (Received April 19, 8 p.m.) (British Official Wireless.) XEW YORK, April 18. 'l okio radio admitted that the attackers. striking from several directions against industrial areas about Tokio, dropped many bombs. It addtd: "Though the casualties in schools and hospitals are. as yet unknown, this inhuman attack on these cultural establishments and residential districts is causing widespread indignation among the populace.” It said that the Mikado's palace is undamaged and the Imperial family is safe. It also said that immediately after the alert Japanese lighter planes and anti-aircraft batteries went into action. The listening station at San Francisco of the Columbia Broadcasting Service said that the first Tokio announcement of the bombing of the capital was contained in an Englishlanguage broadcast. Tins was repeatoil shortly afterward by a Japanese broadcast, which injected the new angle that the enemy’s planes did not attempt to hit military establishments. The broadcast said that the planes were repulsed by a heavy barrage from the defence guns, while the previous training of the people of Tokio for air-raid defence was immediately put into practice and as a. result the losses were exceedingly light. Fires at Kobe ant! Nagoya.

The Tokio communique stated that planes approached from several directions and reached Tokio and Yokohama at 1.30 p.m. Two enemy planes raided Nagoya (170 miles from Tokio) at 3.30 p.m., while a single plane dropped incendiaries at Kobe., but did no serious damage. The Central Defence Headquarters later amended reports that there had been no damage, and admitted that tires were caused by incendiary bombs at Nagoya and Kobe, but claimed that these were brought under control in four hours. It added that incendiaries fell in six places in Nagoya and three places in Kobe. It claimed that so far nine enemy planes were reported shot down, and said that six American aviators attached to the aircraft-carrier Yorktown were captured after being forced down in Japan. These men were named. The mother of one of the men named said in Washington, where site resides, that she was ollicial)y notified that her son had been captured during the raid on the .Marshall Islands in February. It is worthy of note that soon 'before the announcement of the raid on Tokio the Japanese broadcast the news that fire destroyed 400 houses in the village of Oguni in northern Japan, with many casualties. Warnings in Tokio. The Japanese Government broadcast a warning to the people to prepare for further attacks by the United Nations’ planes, adding: "The empire has been brought into the war zone.” ’The newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun” warns that Japan must be prepared for more raids as long as tin; United Stalos possesses aircraft-carriers. It adds: "Now that the United Stales has attacked Japanese territory for the first time, the Japanese nation must resolve anew to smash completely Britain and the United States--