The strategic bombing of the Japanese home islands during WWII targeted military bases, ports, supply depots, factories, and Japan’s economic infrastructure. But that was not all. To demoralize the populace, American troops also targeted civilians. Civilians were killed, not as collateral casualties, but intentionally and directly. This, of course, may come as a shock to some Americans.
Over 60 cities in Japan were subjected to bombings, many repeatedly. In addition to standard bombs, incendiary bombs were used with devastating effect against individual residences. On March 10, 1945, 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of Tokyo were obliterated in the fires started by incendiary bombs.
One B-29 crew member was reported to have commented that he could smell burning bodies over the metropolis. Estimates of the dead from that one air raid on March 10 were a staggering 90,000 to 100,000 people — more than the casualties from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
