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Asahi Shimbun
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Hidden motive to honor LeMay, who ordered air raids on Japan
Tokyo lies in ruins after the U.S. firebombing on March 10, 1945. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) In under two decades, U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay went from being called a "brute" in Japan for his actions during World War II to being honored by the Japanese government for his post-war efforts. More than 60 years later, LeMay is back in the news, with a citizens' activist group calling for revocation of his Japanese medal. U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay (From the U.S. Air Force website) LeMay orchestrated the series of massive indiscriminate bombings of Japanese cities near the end of the war. The deadliest was the March 10, 1945, firebombing on Tokyo that claimed an estimated more than 100,000 civilian lives. But LeMay, who was demonized by Japanese media during the war, was awarded a top medal by the Japanese government only 19 years later. Ironically, the reason was for his role in developing Japan's postwar Air Self-Defense Force. DERIDED AS 'BRUTE' LEMAY LeMay was assigned to take charge of the strategic bombing campaign against Japan in January 1945 after he had led bomber missions over German cities. He initially continued with the high-altitude, daytime precision bombing runs targeting mainly military-related targets, including munitions manufacturing facilities, as his predecessor did. But he soon realized that these missions were ineffective due in part to the strong jet stream and poor weather conditions over Japanese islands, carrying bombs away from their intended targets. LeMay switched to indiscriminate low-altitude night bombings by choosing densely populated areas of major cities as targets, causing large numbers of civilian deaths as a consequence. In justifying the massive firebombings, LeMay told his commanders that no war would be winnable without causing deaths among civilian populations, a former U.S. military member who worked for him wrote in a memoir. LeMay, the memoir continued, also said that Japanese civilians working at munitions production facilities were part of their country's war machine. In the Great Tokyo Air Raid, a fleet of some 300 B-29 Superfortress bombers were deployed for the attack that began in the early hours of March 10, raining down a variety of incendiaries on the Japanese capital. Under LeMay's command, his bombers also decimated Osaka, Nagoya and other major cities until Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945. The overall death toll of civilians from these air raids is estimated at 500,000, including those who perished in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Robert McNamara, who served under LeMay during the bombing campaign against Japan and later became U.S. secretary of defense during the Vietnam War, said LeMay's conviction was that a war must be won no matter the cost. In the 2003 documentary 'The Fog of War,' McNamara quoted LeMay as telling his crews following the Tokyo air raid, 'If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.' LeMay became a household name among the Japanese population as being the villainous mastermind behind the air raids. 'Brute LeMay, Japanese will not be intimidated by massive bombings' blared the headline of a front-page story on the Tokyo air raid in The Asahi Shimbun's March 13, 1945, edition. In the story, the newspaper called the general a 'man of abnormal character.' In a June 7 article, the Asahi, running his mug shot, said LeMay 'must be licking his lips and be in a frenzy of ecstasy as Tokyo is in flames.' HONORED IN MIDST OF VIETNAM WAR After the war, he rose to chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, the top position of the military branch. Maintaining his hard-line approach in the Vietnam War, LeMay also pushed for a sustained strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. His decoration by the Japanese government came when he visited Japan in December 1964, two months before his retirement from the military. He was presented the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun at the ASDF's Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture on Dec. 7, 1964. Prime Minister Eisaku Sato's Cabinet approved honoring LeMay three days earlier. According to media reports from the time, Minoru Genda, a member of the Upper House, spearheaded efforts to officially recognize his postwar achievement. Before turning to politics, Genda was a prominent presence in Japan's armed forces. As an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, he helped plan the attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequently became chief of staff of the ASDF. Senior officials with the then Defense Agency acknowledged LeMay's contributions in terms of the transfer of radar sites and fighter aircraft to Japan after the U.S. occupation ended in 1952. The officials defended the government gesture by citing similar examples of praise, such as for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied Powers who presided over the occupation forces in Japan, and other U.S. military senior leaders involved in Japanese affairs. The Japanese media and the Japanese public were largely silent about the matter of honoring LeMay. But the opposition party raised the subject in the Diet. On the very day he was decorated, Hiroichi Tsujihara, a member of the Japan Socialist Party, took the floor of the Lower House Budget Committee to question the government's motives. '(LeMay) was in charge and directly responsible for air raids against our country,' he said. Tsujihara also said LeMay also commanded the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 'What is the reason for honoring him, although it runs counter to Japanese people's vehement opposition to nuclear and hydrogen bombs?' he said. In response, Sato remarked: 'The past is the past. It is now natural to leave it behind and recognize his accomplishment in a new situation.' Junya Koizumi, director-general of the Defense Agency, weighed in with support for Sato. 'It is meant to give credit to a host of remarkable contributions he made in the postwar years to the ASDF,' said Koizumi, father of future Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. 'This should be separated from the war-related issues.' The defense chief continued: 'LeMay did not have direct oversight for forces dropping the atomic bombs as he was assigned to a new task prior to the atomic bombings.' LeMay died at the age of 83 in 1990. CENSORSHIP LESSENED PUBLIC OUTRAGE Against the backdrop of the government's controversial award is that in the postwar years, both Tokyo and Washington had tried to gloss over the atrocities committed by the U.S. military against Japanese civilians, according to Nobuo Kamioka, professor of American literature at Gakushuin University. Kamioka published a biography on LeMay, 'Tokyo Daikushu wo Shikishita Otoko Curtis LeMay,' (Curtis LeMay, the man who orchestrated the Great Tokyo Air Raid), in February. The General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers imposed a press code during its seven-year occupation. Japanese news media were strictly forbidden to print or broadcast reports critical of the U.S. authorities and other allied powers, as well as the U.S. military's brutalities. The heavy censorship, as a result, took survivors of the wartime horrors many years to become fully aware of the Japanese government's responsibility for the destruction and suffering and translate their anger into a crusade calling for state compensation and relief measures. Hibakusha formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Suffers Organizations as late as in 1956 after the horror of nuclear weapons was thrust into public consciousness anew by the tragedy of the Japanese No. 5 Lucky Dragon tuna boat. The boat, with 23 fishermen aboard, was exposed to the radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test conducted at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in March 1954. One crew member died of radiation sickness six months later while others were admitted to hospitals to treat symptoms of acute radiation syndrome. The confederation, known as Nihon Hidankyo, received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. More than a quarter-century after they were victimized, firebomb survivors set up the Japan air raid victim liaison committee to press for state compensation in 1972. While LeMay directed and implemented the incendiary attacks against Japanese cities, his role in the nuclear attacks was simply to see the bombing forces take off to the targeted cities. LeMay, however, was condemned in Japan as the mastermind of the atomic bombing rather than the air raids. It is partly because Japanese at the time did not realize the full extent of the devastation caused by the firebombings. 'In consequence, since the air raids did not spark a huge controversy in Japan, it enabled the U.S. military to launch heavy aerial bombing campaigns in the Korean War and Vietnam War,' Kamioka said. He said decorating LeMay may have sent the wrong message to the world. 'It could have been taken by the international community that Japan accepted his wartime actions and is grateful,' he said. But the question of honoring LeMay was revisited recently by a peace advocacy group. The group, called Gamafuya, submitted to the government a petition calling for revocation of the honor on March 10, the 80th anniversary of the Great Tokyo Air Raid. 'Decorating LeMay by the Japanese government is tantamount to endorsing the massacre of its own people,' said a representative of the group, which is based in Okinawa Prefecture. An official with the Cabinet Office, which has jurisdiction over laws related to the selection of honorees, replied that the official record cites LeMay's contributions to the ASDF and nothing else. 'Unless new facts emerge to challenge the basis for the citation, there will be no further debate on the issue,' the official said.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
B-29 DOC arrival delayed in Evansville
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – The arrival of the B-29 Superfortress at the Evansville Regional Airport has been delayed by 24 hours. The airplane, nicknamed DOC, will arrive in Evansville on May 29 at approximately 3:30 p.m.. The plane will be transported to the Evansville Wartime Museum throughout the weekend, with ground and cockpit tours available as well as rides. The plane was built in 1945, but sat in the Mojave Desert for 42 years and was used as a target for the navy. Restoration began in 2000 and the plane returned to the skies in 2016. For more information, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
B-29 Superfortress lands at Phoenix Goodyear Airport
The Brief From April 23-27, you have the chance to visit a B-29 Superfortress parked at Phoenix Goodyear Airport. It's one of more than 1,600 B-29 bombers that were built in Kansas during World War II. GOODYEAR, Ariz. - A historic warbird landed at the Phoenix Goodyear Airport on Monday afternoon. What we know This B-29 Superfortress is known as the DOC, and it flew in from Abilene, Texas. It will be in the Valley for a few days for the public to see, and you can even take a tour of the inside. This B-29 is one of over 1,600 B-29 bombers built in Wichita, Kansas during World War II. DOC is one of two B-29 Superfortresses still flying worldwide. DOC's Friends, a nonprofit, is honoring the men and women who designed and built it, maintained it, and flew this aircraft during World War II by touring the U.S. and sharing its story. "Because of the long legs, this plane can fly over 3,000 miles. It was sent to the south Pacific, and they're flying out of Guam, Tinian and Saipan, which is about a thousand miles from Japan. Flies about 200 miles an hour, a little over," Mark Novak, DOC's Chief Pilot said. Novak, once an Air Force pilot, has been the DOC's chief pilot since 2016. "The B-29 at the time was the most advanced aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. It could fly above 30,000 feet. It was pressurized compared to a B-17. It could fly twice as far and carry three times the bomb," Novak explained. Novak says just under 4,000 B-29's were built at four different factories across the country. "This aircraft served on active duty from '45 to '56. The Air Force gave the Navy 250 of these in 1956 to use as targets," he said. The aircraft spent decades untouched in the Mojave Desert until DOC's Friends chose to restore and fly it. "Spent 40 years, 44 years in the desert. Our group spent 16 years restoring her in Wichita. Now, we've been flying her since 2016," he explained. You may be wondering how DOC got its name. Think Disney. "The squadron commander said, 'We have eight airplanes. We're going to be the Snow White squadron.' So, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. DOC's little dwarf brother is down the road at the Pima Museum, and that's Dopey down there," he said. What's next DOC's Friends fly 140 hours a year. They spend about six months touring the country. During the winter, they focus on aircraft maintenance. The B-29 will be open to the public from April 23-27. There will even be flights on Saturday and Sunday. Next, the B-29 will head to Palm Springs, California. Click here to learn more about the plane and how to visit it.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
History Overhead: B-29 Superfortress ‘Doc' lands in Abilene
ABILENE, Texas () – A B-29 Superfortress nicknamed 'Doc' landed safely at Abilene Regional Airport earlier today, soon to perform at the Dyess Wings over West Texas Airshow this Easter Weekend. KTAB/KRBC caught up with Chief Pilot Mark Novak for a look inside the historic aircraft and into its decades-long journey from the assembly line to today. 'There were just under 4,000 B-29s built during WWII… This is a Wichita-built bird… It came too late to go over to the war. Became part of a radar calibration squadron,' Novak explained. GALLERY: WWII era aircrafts stop by Abilene Regional Airport Constructed in Wichita, Kansas, in 1945, Doc served in many non-active combat roles for the U.S. Air Force and eventually ended up as a practice target for the U.S. Navy in the Mojave Desert in 1956. 'Our group got control of it in the year 2000. Broke it into seven big pieces, trucked it to Wichita,' said Novak. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Who's performing at the Wings Over West Texas airshow? After more than a decade of restoration, Doc returned to the skies in 2016, now touring the country to educate the public and perform at air shows with the non-profit 'Doc's Friends'. Doc will be overhead for the Dyess Air Force Base Air Show on Saturday, April 19, and Sunday, April 20. Novak shared that private flight opportunities are now available for purchase on the Doc's Friends website. Local availabilities are scheduled for Thursday, April 17, and Monday, April 21. Proceeds from private flights support the maintenance and operation of the plane and the non-profit organization that owns it. Reporter Noah McKinney will have the full story with Novak tonight at 10 on KTAB and KRBC news. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Remains of captured WWII U.S. airman identified as Cpl. Glenn Hodak
March 27 (UPI) -- Forensics investigators identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Glenn Hodak nearly 80 years after his B-29 bomber was shot down over Tokyo in March 1945. Hodak, 23, was from Cambridge Springs, Pa., and a gunner aboard a B-29 Superfortress bomber when it was shot down during a mission over Tokyo, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Wednesday. Hodak served in the 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group and was listed as missing in action after his crew's B-29 went down. Post-war investigators learned Hodak survived the bombing mission and was held as a prisoner of war until dying in a Tokyo Military Prison fire on May 26, 1945. The U.S. Army Air Force caused the fire when it launched "Operation Meetinghouse" that sent more than 275 B-29 bombers over Tokyo to drop 1,667 tons of incendiary bombs during the largest firebombing mission in the Pacific Theater on March 9, 1945. The raid used 500-pound cluster bombs, each of which contained 38 M69 bomblets containing napalm that was ignited by white phosphorus, reported. The air raid caused the greatest amount of destruction of any bombing raid during World War II, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war. "The chosen areas were saturated, [and] 15 square miles of Tokyo's most densely populated area were burned to the ground" by the resulting firestorm, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey on the Pacific War reported in 1946. The raid killed between 80,000 and 100,000 Japanese people and many POWs, including Hodak. The U.S. Army Air Forces repeated similar raids over Tokyo and other heavily populated Japanese cities. "If we lose, we'll be tried as war criminals," Commanding officer Gen. Curtis LeMay said as the Japan's civilian death toll mounted due to the repeated fire bombings. Hodak's remains were not immediately recovered or identified following Japan's surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, but American Graves Registration Service personnel searched for and recovered the remains of U.S. service members throughout the Pacific Theater. AGRS personnel recovered 62 sets of remains from the Tokyo Military Prison in early 1946 and identified the remains of 25 service members. Hodak's remains were among 39 sets that were unidentified and eventually interred among unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in 2022 disinterred the remains of the 39 unknowns and subjected them to modern forensics testing, including DNA analysis. Investigators also examined dental records and prison reports compiled in Japan and from the memories of other U.S. military personnel who were transferred from the Tokyo Military Prison prior to its destruction. Hodak's remains were positively identified on Sept. 25, 2024, but the announcement of the discovery was delayed pending notification and receipt of his remains by his family. Hodak will be buried in Spring Creek, Pa., in May and is one of two service members whose remains were identified since 2022, CBS News reported.
