SPREAD BY GALE

Evening Star, Issue 25495, 28 May 1945, Page 5

SPREAD BY GALE

GREAT FIRES IN TOKIO CAPITAL LITERALLY SCORCHED TO GROUND NEW YORK, May 26. Tokio, once the. world's third largest metropolis, has been literally scorched to the ground following last night's incendiary raid by Super-Fortresses, reports Tokio radio. A 70-mile-an-hour gale spread the flames through the sprawling, congested business and residential sections, levelling the Russian, Swedish, British, and Finnish Embassies, and wiping out Japan's Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Admiral Suzuki, in a broadcast, said the attacks so damaged Tokio that the entire city would have to be rebuilt. "Our beautiful capital must be replanned from a bare start. There is no present hope of mere restoration. With my own eyes I saw the Imperial Palace engulfed in flames." Tokio radio said: " Though the physical, aspects of the Imperial Palace had been destroyed, its moral and spiritual aspects remain indestructible." Qmiya Palace, "the residence of the Dowager Empress, was destroyed. _ . The Japanese Government is beginning a soup kitchen system for bombed out evacuees The radio claims that 47 bombers were shot down. ESTIMATE OF RESULTS DIFFICULT. The ' Herald-Tribune's ' correspondent on Guam says an of the results of the raid were handicapped by haze and smoke, but the Japanese gave more detailed reports than our photographs. Tokio radio said some incendiaries on Thursday fell on aristo-

cratic areas, burning down Prince Higashikumi's Torizaka Palace, and partly destroying the mansions of Prince Kitashiradawa and Prince Fushimia. The French and Italian Embassies, the Mexican Legation, and the official residences of two Cabinet Ministers were completely burned, and also 10 national schools were totally or partially destroyed. One pilot said, that the Japanese Diet, and the war and navy' buildings must have been hit. as " they were smack in the middle of the target area, which was a mass of flames." The ' New York Times ' Guam correspondent says the Super-Fortresses headed like a flock of giant horaiug pigeons for the target, reaching it shortly after midnight. Back they came on Saturday morning from what shortly became " a milkrun." NINE SQUARE MILES ABLAZE.

Returning airmen reported that nine square miles in the heart of industrial Tokio was left in flames.. The whole place locked like a huge conflagration, with tires making good progress, through the supposedly fire-proof and earthquake-proof areas. Gunners reported that they shot down' at least three rockets manned by suicide pilots, ft was the first confirmation that Baka bombs have been used against SuperFortresses. The raid was led by pathfinders, which lit up the target area. Columns of bombers, some carrying close on the maximum load of 10 tons, deapite the 3,000-mile round trip, attacked from a medium altitude and dropped a heavier type of incendiary than previously used on Tokio and Nagoya. , It is a jellied gasoline type, but capable of piercing heavy structures. To-day s assault raided to 17,600 tons the total weight heaped on Tokio, Nagoya, and other cities during the past 13 days. Tokio radio admitted that Thursday's raid disrupted railway schedules, forcing all metropolitan trams to cease operating. • LATEST REPORTS. The Imperial University and the Bunrika University were destroyed. A late Tokio broadcast reported that 14 districts were severely damaged and additional buildings listed as destroyed included the Transport Ministry, the German, Manchurian, Chinese Puppet Government, and Thailand Embassies, the Afghanistan Legation, the palaces of the Princes Cirichibu, Mika&a, Kanin,' Yamashina, and Nashimoto, -and also the Yomiuri and Tokio Newspaper Companies, and the Natseika and Tokio Hospitals. Yokohama was also damaged.