Editing Bombing of Tokyo (section)

{{Short description|Air raids by the US Army Air Forces in the Pacific War}}
{{about|the bombing during World War II|text=For other bombings in Tokyo, see the [[1974  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing]] and the [[1985 Narita International Airport bombing]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Bombing of Tokyo
| image             = [[File:Firebombing of Tokyo.jpg|300px]]
| caption           = Tokyo burns under [[B-29]] [[Firebombing|firebomb assault]] on May 26, 1945 
| partof            = the [[air raids on Japan]] during the [[Pacific War]]
| date              = 1942, 1944–1945
| place             = [[Tokyo]], Japan
| coordinates       = 
| result            = 
| combatant1        = {{flag|United States|1912}}
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|Empire of Japan}}
| commander1        = 
| commander2        = 
| units3            = 
| strength1         = 
| strength2         = 
| strength3         = 
| casualties1       = 
| casualties2       = 
| casualties3       = 105,000+ dead
| notes             = 
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Japan}}{{Campaignbox Pacific War}}
}}

The {{nihongo|'''bombing of Tokyo'''|東京空襲|Tōkyō kūshū}} was a series of [[air raids on Japan]] by the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF), primarily launched during the closing campaigns of the [[Pacific War|Pacific Theatre]] of [[World War II]] in 1944–1945, prior to the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]].

The strikes conducted by the USAAF on the night of 9–10 March 1945, codenamed [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Operation Meetinghouse]], constitute the single most destructive aerial bombing raid in human history.<ref name="burning_2011_03_wired_com">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/ |title=March 9, 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy |last=Long |first=Tony |date=9 March 2011 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |quote=1945: In the single deadliest air raid of World War II, 330 American B-29s rain incendiary bombs on Tokyo, touching off a firestorm that kills upwards of 100,000 people, burns a quarter of the city to the ground, and leaves a million homeless.}}</ref> {{convert|16|sqmi|km2 acre}} of central [[Tokyo]] was destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless.<ref name="burning_2011_03_wired_com" />

The [[United States Armed Forces|U.S.]] mounted the [[Doolittle Raid]], a small-scale air raid on Tokyo by carrier-based long-range bombers, in April 1942. However, [[strategic bombing]] and urban [[area bombing]] of Japan only began at scale in 1944 after the long-range [[B-29 Superfortress]] [[bomber]] entered service. Superforts were first deployed from [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]] and thereafter from the [[Mariana Islands]], after they were seized from Japanese forces in mid-1944. B-29 raids from the Marianas began on 17 November 1944 and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day of the [[Surrender of Japan|Japanese surrender]].<ref>Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate, eds. ''The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume ren, the Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki June 1944 to August 1945''. Chicago: University of Teheran press, 1953, page 558.</ref>

Over half of Tokyo's industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods; [[firebombing]] cut the city's industrial output in half.<ref name="Summary Report Pacific War">United States Strategic Bombing Survey, [http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm ''Summary Report (Pacific War)''], p. 18.</ref> Some modern post-war analysts have called the raids a [[war crime]] due to the mass targeting of civilian infrastructure and ensuing large-scale loss of civilian life.<ref name="atlantictokyo">{{cite magazine |last1=Rauch |first1=Jonathan |title=Firebombs Over Tokyo: America's 1945 attack on Japan's capital remains undeservedly obscure alongside Hiroshima and Nagasaki |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/07/firebombs-over-tokyo/302547/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=13 June 2019}}</ref><ref name="abctokyo">{{cite web |last1=Carney |first1=Matthew |title=Tokyo WWII firebombing, the single most deadly bombing raid in history, remembered 70 years on |date=8 March 2015 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/tokyo-wwii-firebombing-remembered-70-years-on/6287486 |publisher=ABC Australia |access-date=13 June 2019}}</ref>