March 10 in History
1945 – World War II: The US Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting conflagration kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians
On the night of March 9/10, 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city, that burned out much of eastern Tokyo and killed more than 90,000 and possibly over 100,000 Japanese people mostly civilians. One million were left homeless, making it the most destructive single air attack in human history. Code-named Operation Meetinghouse by the USAAF and known as the Great Tokyo Air Raid in Japan, the attack saw Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers, flying at low altitudes, drop some 279 bombs, in what to become standard form of attack for the USAAF’s B-29s until the end of the war.
There has been a long-running debate over the morality of the firebombing of Tokyo, with the raid often cited as a key example in criticism of the Allies’ strategic bombing campaigns, with many historians and commentators arguing that it was not acceptable for the USAAF to deliberately target civilians, and other historians stating that the USAAF had no choice but to change to area bombing tactics given that the precision bombing campaign had failed.
-Wikipedia
Photo Caption- A road passing through a part of Tokyo which was destroyed in the March 10 air raid – Ishikawa Kōyō