Survivors of Tokyo firebombing 80 years ago want compensation from Japanese gov't

No government agency handles civilian survivors or keeps their records. Japanese courts rejected their compensation demands of 11 million yen each, saying citizens were supposed to endure suffering in emergencies like war. 

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Countries are apt to enter wars but the consequences are not so easily dealt with.

There was hardly any resistance among the Japanese public, including Tokyo residents, to the Japanese military's launch of the most destructive war in history. Almost everyone in Japan cheered on the military's conquests in gaikoku before the US brought the war to Japan in the final few months of the war.

Even in Nazi Germany, there were 42 assasination attempts against Hitler involving thousands of people.

If these folks were engaged in some sort of resistance struggle, sure, they would deserve compensation. But they didn't, so they don't.

Money grab.

Probably should have started going after this cash in say 1952 once occupation ended. Pretty pointless to wait 80 years and then start demanding retribution.

Not a word in this or any other recent reports on the anniversary mentioning why it happened. i.e. Tojo's belligerence and refusal to stop fighting a war they'd lost 3 years prior. Nothing like a bit of victim card playing in this country is there.

Civilian victims of the U.S. firebombings received nothing.

They should be compensated. Just because the bombs weren’t atomic they’ve been forgotten.

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.

Along with the atomic bombs, they were one of the most malicious, evil, cruel, criminal and cowardly war crimes in history..

While I feel for these people who were mercilessly attacked by the US, perhaps they should demand compensation from the US for the firebombing. Also, I don't understand why every group wants,/needs compensation? Is it for their suffering? That unfortunately is what happens when your country wages war.

They should be compensated. Just because the bombs weren’t atomic they’ve been forgotten.

How about all the Chinese the IJA butchered? How about compensating their families for the horrors they endured? The IJA killed over 10 million people during WWII. Where were these "victims" then? Cheering the emperor? Cheering Tojo?

Maybe they should be thankful they survived the mess they started and leave it at that.

While I feel for these people who were mercilessly attacked by the US, perhaps they should demand compensation from the US for the firebombing. Also, I don't understand why every group wants,/needs compensation? Is it for their suffering? That unfortunately is what happens when your country wages war.

Au contraire. The US would have been justified in demanding reparations from Japan but instead helped Japan rebuild after WWII.

Civilian victims of the U.S. firebombings received nothing.

A suit was brought in 2007 in Tokyo but was rejected by the courts, as was a previous attempt in Nagoya in 1987. The judges in the Nagoya suit said, "In an emergency situation where the fate of the nation is at stake, people just have to endure."

Regarding the 2007 suit:

"The plaintiffs also criticized the government for offering compensation only to military veterans and their relatives, saying that it violated constitutional principles of equality.

Eighty-year-old Mieko Toyomura, who lost four of her family in the raid and had her right arm severed in a subsequent bombing, urged the government to treat civilian victims equally.

"I've lived and worked desperately all these years with only one arm, and without getting any assistance. Tears keep falling when I look back on what happened at that time," Kyodo quoted Toyomura as saying.

"I want (the government) to treat people equally without discriminating between civilian war victims and soldiers."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-firebombing-idUST13538620070310/

The survivors should sue the U.S. government for the genocidal mass murder they committed. It was one of the worst war crimes in the 20th century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqJGoyZBa4g

Supported!!

"Compensation" is a reimbursement associated with "car accidents".

Full government support, with the dignity it demands.

Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial assistance and recognition. Some are speaking out for the first time, trying to tell a younger generation about their lessons.

What an inspiring act of commemoration.

The atomic victims were "special" in that they could be used to show Japan as victims. The Tokyo fire bomb victims will get nothing. The atomic victims shouldn't either.

There was hardly any resistance among the Japanese public, including Tokyo residents

From what I have heard, any complaint was reprimanded and if we had the cultural mind to follow the orders, not many dare

The survivors should sue the U.S. government for the genocidal mass murder they committed. It was one of the worst war crimes in the 20th century.

Aside from the over ten million killed by the IJA there was the Siege of Leningrad that killed 3.44 million Soviets and half a million Germans or the Battle of Stalingrad that killed another 1.13 million Soviets and 1.07 million Germans.

And then there are the 20 million or so Stalin killed in purges and another 20 million or more Mao killed through purges and gross economic malfeasance.

War is living hell.

Glad you survived

Note to self.......

Don't build Military Arms Factories in highly populated cities.

""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.""

It's called GREED which is sickening.

Desert TortoiseToday 07:47 am JST

While I feel for these people who were mercilessly attacked by the US, perhaps they should demand compensation from the US for the firebombing. Also, I don't understand why every group wants,/needs compensation? Is it for their suffering? That unfortunately is what happens when your country wages war.

Au contraire. The US would have been justified in demanding reparations from Japan but instead helped Japan rebuild after WWII.

Yup, my father was there. He trained to be a road engineer and spent 2 years of his life rebuilding Japan. I get downvoted every time I mention this even though he never had one bad word to say about Japanese people. Bitter people with no information regarding their own history I guess.

MeiyouwentiToday 07:48 am JST

The survivors should sue the U.S. government for the genocidal mass murder they committed. It was one of the worst war crimes in the 20th century.

And who started it exactly? And refused to back down? And still doesn't even support it's own citizens? Hrm

More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night! It really reminds me of Israel brutally did same thing in Gaza.

Desert TortoiseToday  07:45 am JST

They should be compensated. Just because the bombs weren’t atomic they’ve been forgotten.

How about all the Chinese the IJA butchered? How about compensating their families for the horrors they endured? 

As part of the Japan-China Joint Communiqué (1972), China, under Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, renounced claims to war reparations from Japan. China made this decision for political and economic reasons, wanting to move forward in relations rather than dwell on past grievances. Although Japan did not pay official reparations, it provided large-scale economic aid to China, including: ODA (Official Development Assistance): Japan gave billions of dollars in low-interest loans, grants, and technical cooperation. Infrastructure projects: Japan helped finance projects such as railways, ports, and power plants in China. This economic aid was seen as a de facto form of compensation, even though it was not labeled as "reparations."

MeiyouwentiToday  07:48 am JST

The survivors should sue the U.S. government for the genocidal mass murder they committed. It was one of the worst war crimes in the 20th century.

The existing Japanese government is not responsible because such bombings were acts of war and not subject to reparations or compensation under international law. This is the position that the German government has taken towards it's victims of allied bombings in WWII.

This is the legal position underlying any claims for financial reparation from the J-govt. Because of the immense scope of J-civilians who suffered during WWII providing financial assistance to just the Tokyo bombing victims could potentially open the door to massive claims.

Yes I believe, as Gen. Curtis LeMay himself did, that these bombings of civilians in Japan and Germany were War Crimes. But this is the terrible reality of war.

As part of the Japan-China Joint Communiqué (1972), China, under Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, renounced claims to war reparations from Japan. China made this decision for political and economic reasons, wanting to move forward in relations rather than dwell on past grievances. Although Japan did not pay official reparations, it provided large-scale economic aid to China, including: ODA (Official Development Assistance): Japan gave billions of dollars in low-interest loans, grants, and technical cooperation. Infrastructure projects: Japan helped finance projects such as railways, ports, and power plants in China. This economic aid was seen as a de facto form of compensation, even though it was not labeled as "reparations."

The destruction Japan wrought in China was $500 billion in todays dollars (That's only economic destruction and doesn't even include all the lives ruined directly or indirectly because compensation would run into the trillions otherwise). The ODA was only $30 billion, In other words not even a fifth and Japan also has alot of looted cultural artifacts that are sitting in Japanese temples, museums and other sites. I've seen many of them with my own eyes.

The architect of the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo was General Curtis LeMay, the model for George C. Scott's paranoid and ultra-hawkish character in Dr. Strangelove. In the year of that film's release (1964), Japan's government awarded the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun to LeMay (of all people). Yet, it refuses to compensate the victims of the attack. Go figure.

synikasan - I’m sorry your attempt at contextualizing this story was downvoted

The Japanese fascists were protected by America after the second world War ended. This man : "Nobuseki Kishi" was the Japanese prime Minister of 1957- 1960. He was a war criminal the Albert Speer of Japan. He was active exploration of Manchuria both resources and human lives although he was not a military personnel, the great uncle of Shinzo Abe.

These Japanese victims should seek compensation from L.D.P. the nest of fascist families !

Japan youth generation need to be inspired by a past generation that experienced the horrors of war.

Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial assistance and recognition. Some are speaking out for the first time, trying to tell a younger generation about their lessons.

These elderly survivors offer first hand experience of war, at such harsh devastating conclusive unimaginable level of destruction.

Please give them the voice that must be heard.

Just leave the political agenda behind.

So survivors of tokyo group are going to listen and share other countries death while alive

SomeWeebToday  09:20 am JST

*Yup, my father was there. He trained to be a road engineer and spent 2 years of his life rebuilding Japan. I get downvoted every time I mention this even though he never had one bad word to say about Japanese people. *Bitter people with no information regarding their own history I guess.

Sadly it's not just history and WWII, anything that depicts Japan in a negative light especially from outside Japan is censored, attacked, and diminished because of 'losing face' (mentsu or ushinau) in other words, refusing to take responsibility or accountability because you're too weak, sensitive, and childish.

Eat the leftToday  09:58 am JST

OssanAmericaToday  09:36 am JST

*Although Japan did not pay official reparations, it provided large-scale economic aidto China, including: ODA (Official Development Assistance): Japan gave billions of dollars in low-interest loans, grants, and technical cooperation. Infrastructure projects: Japan helped finance projects such as railways, ports, and power plants in China. This economic aid was seen as a de facto form of compensation, even though it was not labeled as "reparations."*

I'm sure the beautifully cleaned railway stations were a huge comfort to those whose loved ones had been bayonetted by the Japanese army.

When China and Japan signed the Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China on September 29, 1972, which normalized diplomatic relations between the two countries, there were no major public protests or demonstrations by Chinese citizens.  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightly managed public discourse, and any dissent against official policy could lead to severe consequences. The normalization of relations between China and Japan was framed by the government as a strategic move. The official narrative emphasized China’s need to counterbalance the Soviet Union, which was seen as a greater threat at the time. As a result, there was no space for significant public opposition.

elephant200Today  11:35 am JST

The Japanese fascists were protected by America after the second world War ended. This man : "Nobuseki Kishi" was the Japanese prime Minister of 1957- 1960. He was a war criminal the Albert Speer of Japan. He was active exploration of Manchuria both resources and human lives although he was not a military personnel, the great uncle of Shinzo Abe.

Nobusuke Kishi was never charged, tried or convicted as a War Criminal. Others were. He was intrstrumental in keeping post WWII Japan free of communism.

DeeZeeToday  10:32 am JST

The destruction Japan wrought in China was $500 billion in todays dollars (That's only economic destruction and doesn't even include all the lives ruined directly or indirectly because compensation would run into the trillions otherwise). The ODA was only $30 billion, In other words not even a fifth and Japan also has alot of looted cultural artifacts that are sitting in Japanese temples, museums and other sites. I've seen many of them with my own eyes.

Japan offered reparations to China. It was China who refused.

Japan paid reparations to the Phillipines, Indonesia,Vietnam,Burma(Myanmar) and South Korea. As well as non-reparation aid to Taiwan(ROC),Malaysia,Singapore,Laos and Thailand. China(PRC) chose to be in this latter group of their own choice.

The Mainichi Shimbun had an interesting article estimating the total numbers of deaths from the bombings of Japanese population centers during the war. It can be found by searching "387,000 deaths confirmed in WWII air raids in Japan; toll unknown in 15 cities: survey"

Interesting to read reasons why cities did not document, or keep documents, on the deaths.

It is very sad to hear this, to learn that more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed by these bombings. It was a clear war crime to target non-military installations. It was a bad, wrong, mistaken government decision to not surrender, to insist in keeping the war while all information, circumstances were clear about the defeat. So, the victims, the survivors deserve financial aid from the government.

This is in contrast to the same defeated countries, Germany and Italy, which also compensated civilian casualties.

Since it was America that carried out the Tokyo Air Raid, I think we should make a claim against America, but does that mean that there is no right to make a claim in the first place?

China has given up its right to make a claim as a nation, but it has not given up its right to make a claim as an individual Chinese citizen. It is still possible for Chinese people to sue Japan for damages caused during World War II.

On the other hand, Japan has continued to support China through ODA, but the Chinese government has never made it public. Also, 200 million dollars of tax money is spent every year on living expenses for Chinese students studying abroad. Japan is the only country in the world that values ​​Chinese students more than its own citizens.

It is only thanks to the technology provided by Japan that China has been able to compete with America to a certain extent as it is today.

It is also said that the world's strongest Japanese military killed civilians in Asian countries, killing 38 million people in mainland China (300,000 in Nanjing), 200,000 women and children in the Korean Peninsula (as prostitutes), and 20 million in Indonesia (romusha).

However, there are no resident registers or witnesses in the victim countries to back up the number of victims.

In the first place, did the Japanese military repeatedly invade Asian countries in order to kill their people?

There would need to be about 120 places like Nanjing in China, but I have never heard of such a thing. Incidentally, Chiang Kai-shek, who ruled Nanjing, never mentioned the Nanjing Massacre.

There were posts that mentioned Chinese treasures, but I have never heard of the Japanese military taking more than Chiang Kai-shek seized. There is no British Museum in Japan.

If there is actual evidence, I would like to see it.

It would be difficult for the Japanese military to cause damage on the scale of Mao Zedong, Stalin, or Pol Pot.

The war was close to the end at the time. And yet, this atrocity plus Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

The masterminds of this decimation strategy to firebomb crowded wooden houses in downtown Tokyo were Robert McNamara and Army Col. Curtis LeMay, later an Air Force General.

On an early development stage of the plan, they often joked with each other that if the U.S. lost the war they would certainly be tried as war criminals, and so they knew that their action was nothing but a crime.

Military pensions that postwar Japanese government has paid are higher for former Japan's military executives including war criminals such as Tojo with heavier wartime responsibilities.

Incompetent and cruel they forced to cooperate the war to general public, had even ordered that people extinguish napalm-fires with water despite impossible, it delayed evacuation, and more increased victims.

But, postwar government escapes from also responsibility to civilian, still dislikes to compensate to civilian war-victim.

Don’t think for a second the Japanese wouldn’t have done it, had they were given the chance.

Don’t kid yourself

There was hardly any resistance among the Japanese public..

So the mass killings of civilians via this firebombing is justified, right. There is no justification of deliberate mass civilian killings, but the victor writes the history and decides what is/is not a war crime, what the Japanese army did say in China was a war crime, what was done to Japanese public was also a war crime.

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.

The Japanese government should compensate these victims of the WWII Japanese government and Emperor.