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Bombing of Tokyo
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===Casualty estimates=== [[File:Tokyo kushu 1945-3.jpg|thumb|Charred remains of Japanese civilians after Operation Meetinghouse]] The [[Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific War)|US Strategic Bombing Survey]] later estimated that nearly 88,000 people died, 41,000 were injured, and over a million residents lost their homes in the March 9-10 raid alone. The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher death toll of 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. The [[Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department]] established a figure of 83,793 dead, 40,918 wounded, and 286,358 buildings and homes destroyed.<ref name="Selden">{{cite journal |last1=Selden |first1=Mark |date=2 May 2007 |title=A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities & the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq |url=https://apjjf.org/Mark-Selden/2414/article |journal=Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |volume=5 |issue=5 |page=2414 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230226221105/https://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/2414/article.html |archive-date=2023-02-26 |access-date=}}</ref> Historian [[Richard Rhodes]] placed the death toll at over 100,000, injuries at a million, and homeless residents at a million.{{sfn|Rhodes|1984|p=599}} These casualty and damage figures could be low, according to [[Mark Selden]]: [[File:Tokyo kushu 1945-2.jpg|thumb|The charred body of a woman who was carrying a child on her back]] {{blockquote|The figure of roughly 100,000 deaths, provided by Japanese and American authorities, both of whom may have had reasons of their own for minimizing the death toll, seems to be arguably low in light of population density, wind conditions, and survivors' accounts. With an average of {{convert|103,000|/mi2|/hectare|disp=preunit|inhabitants |inhabitants}} and peak levels as high as {{convert|135,000|/mi2|/hectare|disp=preunit|inhabitants |inhabitants}}, the highest density of any industrial city in the world, and with firefighting measures ludicrously inadequate to the task, {{convert|15.8|sqmi|km2}} of Tokyo were destroyed on a night when fierce winds whipped the flames and walls of fire blocked tens of thousands fleeing for their lives. An estimated 1.5 million people lived in the burned out areas.<ref name=Selden />}} In his 1968 book, reprinted in 1990, historian [[Gabriel Kolko]] cited a figure of 125,000 deaths.{{sfn|Kolko|1990|pp=539-540}} Elise K. Tipton, a professor of Japan Studies, arrived at a rough range of 75,000 to 200,000 deaths.{{sfn|Tipton|2002|p=141}} [[Donald L. Miller]], citing [[Knox Burger]], stated that there were "at least 100,000" Japanese deaths and "about one million" injured.{{sfn|Miller|Commager|2001|p=456}} The wider strategic and area bombing campaign against Japan killed more than 300,000 people and injured an additional 400,000, mostly civilians.{{sfn|Crane|1993|p=140}}{{sfn|Conway-Lanz|2006|p=1}}
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