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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Mari Yamaguchi and Mayuko Ono

Tokyo was filled with charred corpses after US firebombing 80 years ago. Survivors want compensation

Japan Tokyo Firebombing - (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago Monday in the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed downtown Tokyo and filled the streets with heaps of charred bodies.

The damage was comparable to the atomic bombings a few months later in August 1945, but unlike those attacks, the Japanese government has not provided aid to victims and the events of that day have largely been ignored or forgotten.

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