WWII+Air+Raids+on+Tokyo

The Americans, after going through a devastating bombing of Pearl Harbor, decided to start using their own bombs, fire-bombs, and napalms on Japan. The bombings and napalms started on April 18, 1942 with the Doolittle Raid, and went on until the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 7, 1945. These air raids destroyed hundreds of cities and took hundreds of thousands of lives. The first airstrike was the Doolittle Raid. The idea was first presented in January of 1942, after Japan decided to bomb Pearl Harbor. They decided that they would use only the most modern and best bomber planes, which at those times were the B-25s. Lieutenant Colonel, James H. Doolittle, was the one that led the whole operation. The plan of the whole airstrike was to bomb Japan, and still continue on to China and land on an airfield. That however did not workout as planned. The sixteen planes were unable to reach China with the fuel they had left, so they landed in Japan instead. Only a few of the airmen ended up surviving, yet eight were captured by the Japanese. Three of the eight, ended up being executed. This lead to the Battle at Midway. The most dangerous and devastating airstrike, would be the Great Bombing of Tokyo that happened on the night of March 9, 1945. This airstrike was aimed to hit mainly Tokyo, yet hit sixty four other cities along with it. America got their B-29s and started dropping all of their 300,000 bombs. By the morning, over one fourth of all of Tokyo was destroyed and around 200,000 people were either killed or injured. This bombing changed America's mind set towards the war. They decided, that instead of just destroying military bases, that they would actually bomb the cities more directly now. Two days later after the bombing, America bombed Nagoya. The following day, America bombed Osaka. Four days later America continued and bombed Kobe. Small bombings kept happening for weeks, with no end in sight. However, on May 23, over 500 B-29 bomber-planes and on May 25, over 400 bomber-planes, yet again bombed Tokyo. All of these bombings during these few months caused well over 400,000 deaths and other casualties. This is twice of what the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended up killing. These air raids on Japan certainly made a huge impact on life in that area. Millions of peoples homes were taken away, in all of Japan. Especially in Tokyo, where 50% of the whole city was rubble by the end of the war. However, houses are replaceable, unlike people. Thousands of people died or were injured. The families of those people lost someone very close to them and would have to find a way to cope with that. People would have to be starting their life all over since many had nothing left with them. The air raids on Japan destroyed thousands of square miles of land, took millions of lives, and ruined thousands of other peoples lives.