HEART OF TOKIO WIPED OUT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23215, 31 May 1945, Page 5

HEART OF TOKIO WIPED OUT

Thousands Of Buildings Now

Mass Of Ashes

Results Of Incendiary Raids

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Received 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 29

<< TITHE heart of Tokio has been wiped out by * incendiaries,” says Major-General Curtis Lemay, in a statement quoted in a Guam message. “More than 51 square miles surrounding the Imperial grounds are a great mass of ashes marking the site of thousands of buildings and residences that formerly housed factories of all types. There are a few fireblackened ruins of buildings still standing but,” said Major-General Lemay, “we destroyed all the targets we set out to destroy. Very little is now left of the Japanese capital. Whatever the Japanese announce can be taken as 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.”

After studying the official photographs of the raid on May 26, Major-General Lemay announced that numerous buildings within the 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 for the ravings of the Japanese about the destruction of the palace.

In the six incendiary attacks against Tokio 50 Super-Fortresses were lost by enemy action. In addition, small industrial plants nearby and hundreds of individual targets were gutted by the raids. The last two attacks destroyed or damaged 30 to 35 important targets, including the Tokio central station and the Kokusan Electrical Company. These two assaults knocked out 18.6 square miles of industrial Tokio, bringing the total destruction to approximately 46 per cent of the built-up area and about a fourth of the city’s total area of 213 square miles. •

The only conclusion to be drawn from the photographs is that Tokio is finished as an important cog in the Japanese war machine, says the Guajn correspondent of the Associated Press of America. Mile after mile of rubble showing up like white sand on the reconnaissance pictures represents all that is left of the formerly important arsenals, electric plants, engine plans, and home factories which figure so largely in Japanese economy. In the 51 square miles burnt out of the 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 nearby river the only exits. The raids of last week burned at a similar speed. It is possible that 1,000,000 and perhaps twice that number perished. Financial Aid The Tokio radio stated that the Japanese Cabinet extended financial aid to the victims of the Super-Fortress raid of Saturday, totalling 50,000,000 yen. Ministers urged the people to turn from making bamboo spears to defend the homeland and concentrate on the building of planes to destroy the enemy’s air strength. The Washington correspondent of the "Herald-Tribune” says that the 20th Air Force, which operates the Super-Fortresses attacking Japan, is about to be augmented with the Third Bomber Command, due to more SuperFortresses becoming available. It is believed that 832 Dpminators, which are the big brothers of the Liberators, may operate with the Far East Air Force.

Tire nominators have been long in production and some are known to have reached the fronts but are not yet announced in action. The Eighth Air Force going to the Pacific from Europe will becoijie medium bomber groups. Noted Japanese Killed The Tokio radio announced that the Super-Fortress raid on Tokio on May 25 killed Viscount Kikujiro Ishii, Dean of Japan’s Diplomatic Service; Tsuneji Taniguchi, Vice-Governor of the Bank of Japan; and Yorozs Oda, an authority on international law. Viscount Ishii presided at the Council and Assembly of the League of Nations in 1923 and 1926. Oda once was a judge of The Hague Internationl Court of Arbitration.

According to the Tokio radio SuperFortresses destroyed 60,000 houses in Yokohama, left 250,000 persons homeless and virtually isolated Yokohama from the rest of Japan. It may be some time before the number of dead and injured can be estimated. Yokohama Burning

“Yokohama is burning block by block,” said one of the Super-Fortress pilots returning from to-day’s raid on Japan’s largest port. “We saw smoke rising 20,000 feet,” he said. “A strong ground wind may spread the fires throughout the dense-ly-populated industrial and storage areas and Yokohama dockland.”

An earlier message said: “The 20th Air Force has announced that SuperFortresses in very great strength attacked Yokohama to-day in the first major attack on this great port and shipbuilding centre.” The United Press correspondent at Guam says that the attacking fleet probably exceeded 500 planes. Super-Fortresses rained 3200 tons of infendiaries on Yokohama, reports the Guam correspondent of the “New York Times.” The targets included big industries in the north-east area, the great docks in the centre and the commercial sections in the south. Mustangs from Iwo Jima accompanied the bombers.

The Yokohama raid raised the weight of bombs dropped on Japan in the last 16 days to 20.800 tons, reports the Guam correspondent of the United Press. The intensity is comparable with that against Germany during the preinvasion air campaign. Japan's "sacred wind” was seen by Super-Fortress creWs as one of the most important factors in the incendiary raid successes. The wind which wrecked Kublai Khan’s invasion fleet became the basis of Japan’s legend of invincibility, but it now fans firebomb flames and convinces the Japanese that their god has forsaken them. The Tokio radio reports that flak shot down a E 32 south of Honshu on Monday. The United Press says that this is the first report of the new super-Liberator over Japan.