[미국뉴스] 200410@CNN 2차대전 일본 폭격도시 10곳, 파괴율

최근 CCN에 이차대전 일본 폭격에 대해 재조명되는 컬럼이 연재도었음 

2차대전말에 일본의 10곳을 집중적으로 폭격하였으며 도쿄의 경우 도시의 40%가 파괴되었다고함. 

다시는 일어나지 말아야할 일인거 같습니다.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/07/asia/japan-tokyo-fire-raids-operation-meetinghouse-intl-hnk/index.html

 

 

When the Emperor spoke

Among the dead Japanese on March 10 were six of Nihei's close friends. They'd been playing together in the late afternoon of March 9.

"We were playing outside until dusk. We were playing war role play games," she recalled. "My mom called out that dinner was ready, and we promised we would meet to play again the next day."

Tokyo residents who lost their homes as a result of the US bombing air raid "Operation Meetinghouse" conducted on March 10, 1945. That air raid was later estimated to be the deadlist in history.

That summer of 1945 was tough for Nihei. She and her family -- all of whom survived the March 10 raid -- moved from relative to relative, or other temporary accommodation.

Food was short and Nihei found the powdered acorns mixed with water and grains that were available to eat difficult to stomach.

That August, it was announced that, for the first time, Emperor Hirohito would speak directly to the Japanese people. Nihei's family gathered around a radio to hear his voice.

I didn't care if we won or lost as long as there were no fire raids.

Haruyo Nihei

B-29s had struck devastating blows on Hiroshima and Nagaski, this time using atomic bombs, the only time nuclear weapons had been used in battle.

Hirohito never used the words "surrender" or "defeat" but said "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb" and Japan would need to accept its enemies' demands to save the country.

Nihei didn't care about Japan's defeat nor did she know much about the new bombs that forced it.

"I didn't care if we won or lost as long as there were no fire raids -- I was 9 years old -- it didn't matter for me either way," she said.

to remember the past

In a quiet corner of Tokyo's Koto ward a two-story building that has the air of a residential home in fact houses the Tokyo Air Raids Center for War Damages.

Since a group of air raid survivors bandied together to crowdfund its opening in 2002, it has been preserving their memories and also remembering that Japanese air strikes inflicted severe damage on Chinese civilians in Chongqing, killing 32,000 people between February 1938 and August 1943. And that horrible airstrikes continue to this day in places like Syria and Yemen.

Katsumoto Saotome, the founder of the Tokyo Air Raids Center, had pushed for there to be a government-funded state museum dedicated to the raids. Hopes for this were dashed in 2010, when Tokyo's municipal government told Saotome there was no public funding available.

Instead, in that year, the Tokyo government began compiling a list of victims. It established a small memorial in the corner of Yokoamicho Park with their names, next to a charnel house with the ashes of Tokyo fire raid victims and those who died in the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923.

But these small gestures of commemoration are not enough for survivors of the air raids.

With over 80% of Japanese born after the war, some fear that younger generations are losing touch with that aspect of the past.