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Customer Reviews of The night Tokyo burned

The fire bombing of Japanese cities during WWII.
Edoin does a good job detailing the initial fire bombing of Japanese cities by American B-29s. Over 300,000 Japanese lost their lives and many millions became homeless because of General Curtis LeMay's decision to go after the residential areas of Japan. Rather than try to precision bomb the factories that made munitions and aircraft engines, LeMay went after the residences because many were home based industrial enterprises. These small shops were destroyed affecting the large plants. In addition, workers who lost their homes also tended to go to work less ofter thereby destroying the morale of the Japanese worker.
This destruction (although a dirty business) proved to the average Japanese the loss of the war and served the Americans.
I think this was a balanced book. Edoin proves the military clique of Japan made the civilian work force an acceptable military target. It also shows how the American military went after a targets which caused thousands of civilian deaths. More people lost their lives in the fire bombing of Japanese cities than the deaths caused by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A thoughtful read.