The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 9 | Issue 3 | Number 2 | Article ID 3470 | Jan 17, 2011

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That Unforgettable Day--The Great Tokyo Air Raid throughDrawings あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲

Sumida Local Cultural Research Center of Taize

That Unforgettable Day--The GreatTokyo Air Raid through Drawings あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲

Sumida Local Culture Resource Center (墨田郷土文化資料館)

Translation by Bret Fisk

The following paintings depicting the GreatTokyo Air Raid of March 10, 1945 werefeatured in a special exhibit hosted by theSumida Local Culture Resource Center (墨田郷土文化資料館) in 2004. The Center stafforiginally settled on the idea of collectingamateur and professional artwork as a uniqueway of contributing to the preservation of thepublic memory regarding the March 10incendiary air raid. Each paint ing isaccompanied by a short explanatory textwritten by the artist. As well as giving insightinto the particular scene depicted in thepainting, these explanations generally touch onthe artist’s overall air raid experience. Weappreciate the permission provided by theSumida Local Culture Resource Center tofeature the paintings here. The paintings werepublished as part of a greater collection in2005 as That Unforgettable Day—The GreatTokyo Air Raid Through Drawings (Japanesetitle: あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲).Head Editor: Kimura Toshiko. Editors:Tanaka Yoshiaki, Sueki Yoriko, Aoki Toshiro,Ogawa Shigenori, Yoshikawa Katsuyo,Takahashi Toshie, Tsuchiya Naotsugu

Watching Tokyo on March 10 from ourEvacuation Home in Ibaraki Prefecture

Artist: Hashimoto Kimisuke

Location: Yoshinuma (Tsukubane City),Ibaraki Prefecture

Age at time of raid: 7

During the early part of 1944, I went with myfamily to live with my mother’s relatives inYoshinuma. My father and his younger sistersstayed in Tokyo. I was a first grader inelementary school at the time of the raid. Ipainted this picture because I’ve never beenable to forget the sight of the B-29s illuminatedby the red skies above Tokyo. There are aboutfifty kilometers between Tokyo and Yoshinuma,but we could clearly see the light reflected offthe airplanes as the fires burned the night sky.My mother worried about my father’ssafety—as well as that of her younger brotherwho was fighting in New Guinea. My older

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sister, brother and I worried too. My one-year-old brother didn’t understand what washappening, but he was there too. So were ourneighbors. All we could do was stand there andwatch. Fortunately, my father and aunts weresafe, but my mother’s brother never did comehome from the war. My mother waited for him,but we found out that he’d died in November of1944. My mother lived to be 95. She passedaway in 2003.

The Mukojima area in Flames

Artist: Katsumi Hidesaburo

Location: Yotsugi Station

Age at time of raid: 16

I lived in Katsushika Ward, Hondenshibue-choat the time. We heard the sound of anti-aircraftguns early in the morning of March 10. Wecould see the B-29s flying low overhead and theKameido area was already engulfed in flames. Iwent to Yotsugi Station to the west of my houseand this is what I could see on the oppositeshore. The B-29s were already leaving and theentire opposite side of the river was burning. Ithink the building in the center is the Shiseidochemical factory. I watched it explode. On theright, you can see the Kanebo factory inKanagafuchi burning as well.

A Scorched Baby Blown to my Feet

Artist: Yamashita Seiko

Location: Between Kameido and Kinshicho

Age at time of raid: 21

I was a teacher at the Girls’ Commercial Schoolin front of Kameido Station in those days. I wasstaying at the school on the night of Marchninth and tenth. We heard a warning from theair ra id s i ren and suddenly we weresurrounded by a sea of f lames.

I put on my gaiters, boots and an overcoat. Ialso wrapped a blanket around my head beforerunning out into the flames carrying some ofthe school’s important documents. The windoutside was fierce. In the midst of all theflames, an infant covered with burns andlooking like a rubber doll came tumbling by andhit me in the foot. It then kept tumbling on tothe rear.

A wooden telephone pole had fallen over andwas on fire. Because it blocked my path, Iheaded for the area in front of KinshichoStation instead and found room in a bombshelter on the way. There was an elderly coupleinside the shelter. Eventually, the sound of thebomber engines died away and I got out of theshelter. When I glanced at the couple, I sawthat they had died in each other’s arms.

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My Family—Trying to Escape the Flames

Artist: Miyairi Keijiro

Location: Shibazaki-cho, Asakusa Ward

Age at time of raid: 8

Our family lived in Asakusa (Shibazaki 1-3) atthe time of the March 10 raid. We initially tookshelter in a dugout under our floor, but as thefires grew closer we decided to escape to anarea where all the buildings had been removedto create a firebreak.

I painted this from memories of my familysearching for safety among the flames thatnight. On the far right is my little brother. Hewas three at the time. My mother is holding hishand and she is also carrying my youngestbrother—he was one year old and had themeasles that night. My mother was carryinghim rather than strapping him to her back forfear that he would catch on fire without herknowing it. I’m on the left and the womanholding my hand was a woman from theneighborhood. I clearly remember the sight ofsomeone’s corpse burning at my feet.

Even now, I can’t remember this night withoutoffering a prayer.

The Flames of Kototoi Bridge—Memoriesof Losing my Family

Artist: Kano Teruo

Location: Sumida River, Kototoi Bridge(Asakusa side)

Age at time of raid: 14

On March 10, we fled from our home inAsakusa Ward’s Senzoku-cho to Sumida Parknear the Kototoi Bridge. The park was a chaoticcrowd of jostling people, and I got separatedfrom my family. I jumped into the river becausethe sparks flying through the air made it so hotthat I was having trouble breathing. I was ableto wedge myself between the stones of one ofthe bridge’s supporting pillars. From there Icould look up at the flames on the bridge aboveme and see people stuck on the railing. Everynow and again red hot sheets of corrugatedtinplate would fly off into the river.

With dawn, those of us who had survived under

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the bridge gathered. There were about twentyof us left. Everyone else had either burned todeath or drowned.

I lost six family members that night, but mytroubles were only beginning. I wasdiscriminated against for decades as a warorphan and was forced to live at the lowestlevels of society. I don’t even know who toblame for it. I just pray that those who haven’texperienced war will never have to go throughthat hell themselves.

The Umaya Bridge on the Night of March10

Artist: Fukushima Yasusuke

Location: Umaya Bridge

Age at time of raid: 6

I lived in the Kikuyabashi area of Asakusa.During the raid of March 10, my grandmotherand I ran around in the flames like rats. Eachtime I would almost lose consciousness fromthe intense heat of the wind, my grandmotherwould call out my name as loud as she could. Iremember looking up and seeing a train on fire.

The painting is like a scene from hell and showspeople being lifted up with the explosion of an

incendiary cluster that failed to separate untilimpact. My grandmother and I huddled at thebase of the railing to the Umaya Bridge andsurvived by patting out the sparks that landedon us. I can still remember the maniacalscream of a mother who realized she had lostsight of her child and disappeared in a dashback into the flames.

The next day, I led my grandmother throughthe piles of charcoal corpses and burningrubbish because her eyes were so sore from theheat. We eventually made it to the house ofsome relatives in Mejiro. It was three daysbefore we were reunited with my father, whohad been working the nightshift, and mymother, who had escaped to Ueno after stayingbehind and attempting to fight the flames.

The City Burned Long Ago—As If We WereVermin

Artist: Kawai Mitsuru

Location: Honjo Ward

Age at time of raid: 12

We were a family of six living at HigashiRyogoku 3-40, Honjo Ward.

During the early hours of the night, my father

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led us through streets with flames bursting outof the windows of the buildings on both sides.We got as far as the Chitose Bridge. We werepushed back against the railing by crowds ofpeople as a hail of sparks assailed us.

Soon after this, we took shelter near one end ofthe bridge—a single step up on the sidewalk.The hot winds blew over the bridge and upsetmy mother’s hair. Sparks would ignite intoflames each time they landed on us children.My mother knelt there and beat them out forus. By morning, my mother had lost hereyesight, my sister’s leg was burnt, and thehand I had been using to cover my face wascovered with blisters.

After leaving us there on the sidewalk, myfather had gone back into the flames to searchfor an acquaintance. We never saw him again.There had been forty or fifty people on thebridge, but in the morning most of them weredead. Only a handful had survived like us.

“My Child”

Artist: Miyamoto Kenzo

Location: Ohisa-cho, Arakawa Ward

Age at time of raid: 12

It was an ocean of fire. My mother held myhand as we entered the chaotic stream of

refugees and headed for the Arakawaembankment. This painting is of something Isaw on the way and have never been able toforget. A pregnant woman was standing therelike a ghost; at her feet was a child of perhapsthree or four years. The child wasn’t moving atall. The way they were lit up by the flamesaround them—it was a sight I saw at twelvethat was so horrifying I’ll never be able toforget it.

Near Kameido Station—Corpses of ThoseWho Died Trying to Climb the

Embankment

Artist: Tsuchida Hiroshi

Location: Kameido (March 12, 1945)

Age at time of raid: 13

We lived at Azuma-cho Nishi 4-53, Mukojima(now: Kyojima, Sumida Ward). Two days afterthe March 10 raid, I walked around looking atthe damage. The painting shows what I saw onthe embankment near the junction of the Sobuand Onagigawa freight lines. It was a mountainmade of several hundred burned corpses. Inever want to see such a sight again.

“Why do ordinary citizens have to suffer likethis? Are we really going to win the war?”That’s what went through my mind as a child.

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I think these people had been unable tocompletely escape the flames that engulfedthem as they tried to run up the embankment.They probably died in an instant.

Kotobashi Bridge—The Horrors at Dawn

Artist: Habe Gonshiro

Location: Honjo Ward, Kotobashi

Age at time of raid: 13

My family lived in Kamezawa, Honjo Ward.During the early hours of March 10, my fatherand I headed for the Kotobashi Bridge east ofour house. However, the bridge was coveredwith refugees. After passing over it wecontinued to the junior high school on the otherside (now Ryogoku High School). We spent therest of the night there in the schoolyard.

This is what I saw the next morning at about sixo’clock when we tried to get back to our house.The bridge that we had so recently been on wascovered with what must have been hundreds ofbodies. Blackened corpses, half-burnt bodiesthat looked like clay figures…. Among thelumber floating in the river below there wereeven more corpses that had drowned withoutburning. Looking underneath the ends of thebridge, I could see other mountains of bodies.There was white and black smoke rising allaround us. It was like the sun was shining

through cloudy glass. I passed over the bridgein shock.

There was nothing left standing in the spotwhere we should have found our house.

Temporary Internment of Corpses at HaraPark

Artist: Tsuchida Hiroshi

Location: Hara Park (in present dayKyojima, Sumida Ward)

Age at time of raid: 13

It was a few days after the March 10 raid. Atthe small park near my house a simple fencehad been erected to help conceal what washappening inside—the internment of bodiesbrought from all over the area. The fence wasso full of holes that you could see everythingtaking place anyway. There was a horriblesmell everywhere. Our house was about fiftymeters away, but the smell was so strong thatwe couldn’t even eat.

Trucks would carry the bodies in and theywould be placed in a large pit that had beenroughly dug for that purpose. There wasanother smaller pit that had been dug in thesandbox. Some of the bodies were burnt. Somewere unscathed. There were adults andchildren. I later checked the records and

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learned that 364 people were temporarilyinterned in the park. All of them had beeninhabitants of the surrounding neighborhoods.

After the war, the bodies were exhumed andcremated. The ashes were transferred to urnsand housed inside Memorial Hall at YokoamiPark.

Bret Fisk is a translator and director of anEnglish conversation school living in Odawara,Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. With CaryK a r a c a s h e i s t h e c o - c r e a t o ro f J a p a n A i r R a i d s . o r g(http://www.japanairraids.org/), a bilingualdigital archive.

Recommended citation: Sumida Local CultureResource Center (

墨田郷土文化資料館), That

Unforgettable Day--The Great Tokyo Air Raidthrough Drawings

あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲

, The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol 9,Issue 3 No 2, January 17, 2011.

See the following articles included in thisspecial issue:

That Unforgettable Day--The Great Tokyo AirRaid through Drawings　あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲

Bret Fisk, The Tokyo Air Raids in the Words ofThose Who Survived 被災者が語る東京空襲

Yamabe Masahiko, Thinking Now about theGreat Tokyo Air Raid 今、東京大空襲を考える

Cary Karacas, Fire Bombings and ForgottenCivilians: The Lawsuit Seeking Compensationfor Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids 焼夷弾空襲と忘れられた被災市民―東京大空襲犠牲者による損害賠償請求訴訟

Articles on relevant subjects include:

R o b e r t J a c o b s(http://japanfocus.org/-Robert-Jacobs/3446), 24Hours After Hiroshima: National GeographicChannel Takes Up the Bomb

A s a h i S h i m b u n(http://japanfocus.org/-The_Asahi-Shimbun/3320), The Great Tokyo Air Raid and the Bombingof Civilians in World War II

Y u k i T a n a k a a n d R i c h a r d F a l k(http://japanfocus.org/-Richard-Falk/3245), TheAtomic Bombing, The Tokyo War CrimesTribunal and the Shimoda Case: Lessons forAnti-Nuclear Legal Movements

M a r i l y n B . Y o u n g(http://japanfocus.org/-Marilyn-Young/3125),Bombing Civilians: An American Tradition

M a r k S e l d e n(http://japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/2414), AForgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy,the Destruction of Japanese Cities and theAmerican Way of War from World War II toIraq

Y u k i T a n a k a(http://japanfocus.org/-Yuki-TANAKA/1807),Indiscriminate Bombing and the Enola GayLegacy