TOKYO RUINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25216, 31 May 1945, Page 5

TOKYO RUINS

BURNED-OUT AREA 51 SQUARE MILES LITTLE LEFT OF CITY RESULT OF FIVE RAIDS (Reed. 10.18 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 29 "Fifty-one square miles of Tokyo have been burned out in five SuperFortress incendiary raids in two months," said Major-General Curtis Lemay, commander of the United States Twentieth Air Force. "Very little is now left of the Japanese capital. Whatever the Japanese announce can be taken sis correct. "We destroyed all the urban area we attacked. If the Japanese persist in continuing the war they have nothing else to look forward to but the complete destruction of their cities." Buildings in Palace Grounds After studying official photographs oi the raid on May 26, General Lemay announced that numerous buildings within the Imperial Palace grounds were destroyed. as well as in the adjacent area. The pictures showed a number of buildings burned to the ground. The palace was not a target for bombs, but he felt no sympathy with the ravings of the Japanese about the destruction of the palace.

General Lemay

In addition to small industrial plants, 100 important individual targets were gutted by the raids. The last two attacks destroyed .or damaged 30 to 35 important targets, including the Tokyo central station and the Kokusan hlectrical Company. These two assaults knocked out 18.6 square miles of industrial Tokyo, bringing the total destruction to approximately 46 per cent of the built-up area and about onefourth of the city's total area of 213 square miles. General Lemay said that in the six incendiary attacks against Tokyo, 50 Super-Fortressee were lost as a result of enemy action. Mile After Mile of Rubble "The only conclusion to be drawn from the photographs is that Tokyo is finished as an important cog in the Japanese war machine," says the Guam correspondent of the Associated Press. "Mile after mile of rubble, showing up like white sand on the reconnaissance pictures, represents all that is left ot the important arsenals, electric plants, engine plants and home factories which figure so largely in the Japanese economy.

"In the 51 square miles of burnedout city there lived approximately 4,500.000 people. None could be living in that area now if the pictures tell the story. Great numbers must have perished in the first big incendiary raid on March 3, when it took only three hours for 15 miles of the city to become a raging inferno, with a few bridges across the near-hy river the only exits. The raids of the past week burned the city at a similar speed. It is possible that 1.000.000, perhaps twice flint number, perished." Prominent Japanese Die The .Japanese news agency announces the death of Viscount lshii m the latest air attack on Tokyo. Fie was Ambassador in Washington just, after the last war. The deaths of the vice-governor of the Bank of Japan and a prominent member of the Imperial Cabinet are also announced.

"Yokohama is burning block b,v block," said one of the Supen-Fortress pilots on returning from today's raid on Japan's largest port. "We saw smoke rising 20,000 feet," he said. Strong ground wind may spread the fires throughout the densely-populated industrial and storage areas and the Yokohama dockland. The Japanese say that 60,000 houses in Yokohama were destroyed. Army Mustangs escorted bombers in the Yokohama attack, says a Pacific Ocean Areas communique from Guam. Approximately 140 enemy planes intercepted, and our aircraft shot down 26. Our losses were three' fighters. Since the start of operations in Korean waters, naval search planes have sunk 02,020 tons of shipping and damaged 81,680 tons. NEW BRITISH CARRIER

LAUNCHING OF POWERFUL (Rerd. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. May 29

Britain's new aircraft-carrier, H.M.S. Powerful, was launched a month ago by Mrs A, V. Alexander, wife of the then First Lord of the Admiralty, fit Belfast in the presence of the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Abercorn. The Powerful is the first carrier to hear this name. She was built, on austerity lines. It is believed that much of her, service will be in the Far East. Details of her speed, armament and plane-oarrying Capacity are still secret.