Latest news with #B-29s
Asahi Shimbun
6 days ago
- General
- Asahi Shimbun
Grandchildren linked by fate to speak at peace symposium
Kosuzu Harada, left, and Ari Beser at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on June 20 (Jun Ueda) Although the family histories of Kosuzu Harada and Ari Beser are bound by war, their unexpected friendship of 10-plus years is the result of a desire for peace. Harada's grandfather survived both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She first met Beser in 2013 when the American visual artist visited to see her mother. 'When contacted, my family felt bewildered,' Harada recalled. 'We wondered what he wanted to hear.' Beser's grandfather, it turns out, was aboard both the B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities. Decades later, his grandson was interviewing 'hibakusha' atomic bomb survivors. 'SORRY' IS NOT ENOUGH Harada and Beser will speak at the International Symposium for Peace 2025, which will be held in Hiroshima on Aug. 2. It is titled, 'The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition: 80 years since the end of World War II, Shaping the future.' Harada and Beser exchanged their thoughts when they met in Hiroshima in June. Harada's grandfather, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was a shipbuilding engineer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Nagasaki shipyard. Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the city was leveled by the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945. He returned to Nagasaki, only to fall victim to the second atomic bombing three days later. Harada, who was born in Nagasaki in 1974, said she learned that her grandfather was a double atomic bomb survivor when she was 6. She was told that Yamaguchi did not speak about his experiences for decades after the war due to opposition from his family members who were concerned about discrimination and prejudice against hibakusha. Yamaguchi began publicly recounting what he endured during the war at age 90, only three years before his death in 2010. Beser, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1988, said he does not remember much about his grandfather Jacob Beser, who died when he was 4. An elementary school teacher told students that Beser's grandfather was a hero that ended World War II. It would not be until he came to Japan and spoke with hibakusha that he became aware of a reality more complex than his prior thoughts about the United States simply ending the war that Japan started. Beser said he believes it is his responsibility to hibakusha to convey their experiences to people in the United States and elsewhere by visually documenting them and through other means. He said saying 'I am sorry' to hibakusha is light or weak, and the mission he has taken upon himself is more important than making apologies that would offer nothing toward reducing nuclear weapons. Harada said she holds an expectation for the U.S. president to formally apologize for the atomic bombings as a family member of a two-time atomic bomb survivor. She has likewise said she is ready to candidly apologize to people in other parts of Asia, who were victimized by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, if they ask her to do so. Harada has never asked Beser for an apology. She said she will not, and should not, force an apology. 'I must continue to hold dialogue with Ari, facing him eye to eye,' she said. PATHS TOWARD RECONCILIATION A book co-authored by the two, titled ''Kinokogumo' no Ue to Shita no Monogatari: Magotachi no Katto to Kiseki' ('Tales above and below 'mushroom clouds': conflict and trajectories of grandchildren'), came out this month from Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. Harada hopes readers will understand that once a war begins, families on both sides of the conflict will face its unending consequences. Beser wrote about his grandfather and father in detail for the first time. He said readers would be surprised to learn what occurred to the family of a U.S. soldier after the atomic bombings. At the symposium, Harada and Ari are scheduled to participate in a session titled 'From above and below mushroom clouds,' where participants will discuss the reality of nuclear weapons and reconciliation from Japanese and U.S. perspectives. The two other participants will be Jiro Hamasumi, secretary-general of the Japan Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), which received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and Nonoka Koga, who will conduct doctoral research at Michigan State University from this autumn. Hamasumi was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima while in his mother's womb. Alexander Kmentt, director of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation at Austria's foreign ministry, will deliver a keynote speech. Kmentt will participate in a panel discussion on the abolition of nuclear weapons with Masako Wada, assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo and a hibakusha from Nagasaki; Yuki Miyamoto, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University; and Shizuka Kuramitsu, a research assistant at the Arms Control Association in the United States. The symposium is sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and The Asahi Shimbun Co. It will be held at the International Conference Center Hiroshima, located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and entry will cap at 450 people who will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. No prior application is required and simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
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.
NBC News
10-03-2025
- General
- NBC News
Tokyo marks 80th anniversary of U.S. firebombing that killed 100,000 in a single night
TOKYO, Japan — 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. 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. 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. Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, says her mission is to keep telling the history she witnessed at 14, speaking out on behalf of those who died. On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s raided Tokyo, dumping cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese-style wood and paper homes in the crowded 'shitamachi' downtown neighborhoods. Takeuchi and her parents had lost their own home in an earlier firebombing in February and were taking shelter at a relative's riverside home. Her father insisted on crossing the river in the opposite direction from where the crowds were headed, a decision that saved the family. Takeuchi remembers walking through the night beneath a red sky. Orange sunsets and sirens still make her uncomfortable. By the next morning, everything had burned. Two blackened figures caught her eyes. Taking a closer look, she realized one was a woman and what looked like a lump of coal at her side was her baby. 'I was terribly shocked. ... I felt sorry for them,' she said. 'But after seeing so many others I was emotionless in the end.' Many of those who didn't burn to death quickly jumped into the Sumida River and were crushed or drowned. More than 105,000 people were estimated to have died that night. A million others became homeless. The death toll exceeds those killed in the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki. But the Tokyo firebombing has been largely eclipsed by the two atomic bombings. And firebombings on dozens of other Japanese cities have received even less attention. The bombing came after the collapse of Japanese air and naval defenses following the U.S. capture of a string of former Japanese strongholds in the Pacific that allowed B-29 Superfortress bombers to easily hit Japan's main islands. There was growing frustration in the United States at the length of the war and past Japanese military atrocities. Ai Saotome has a house full of notes, photos and other material her father left behind when he died at age 90 in 2022. Her father, Katsumoto Saotome, was an award-winning writer and a Tokyo firebombing survivor. He gathered accounts of his peers to raise awareness of the civilian deaths and the importance of peace. Saotome says the sense of urgency that her father and other survivors felt is not shared among younger generations. Though her father published books on the Tokyo firebombing and its victims, going through his raw material gave her new perspectives and an awareness of Japan's aggression during the war. She is digitalizing the material at the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, a museum her father opened in 2002 after collecting records and artifacts about the attack. 'Our generation doesn't know much about (the survivors') experience, but at least we can hear their stories and record their voices,' she said. 'That's the responsibility of our generation.' 'In about 10 years, when we have a world where nobody remembers anything (about this), I hope these documents and records can help,' Saotome said. Postwar governments have provided 60 trillion yen ($405 billion) in welfare support for military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Civilian victims of the U.S. firebombings received nothing. A group of survivors who want government recognition of their suffering and financial help met earlier this month, renewing their demands. No government agency handles civilian survivors or keeps their records. Japanese courts rejected their compensation demands of 11 million yen ($74,300) each, saying citizens were supposed to endure suffering in emergencies like war. A group of lawmakers in 2020 compiled a draft proposal of a half million-yen ($3,380 ) one-time payment, but the plan has stalled due to opposition from some ruling party members. 'This year will be our last chance,' Yumi Yoshida, who lost her parents and sister in the bombing, said at a meeting, referring to the 80th anniversary of Japan's WWII defeat.
The Guardian
10-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Eighty years since the Tokyo firebombing, survivors are still awaiting recognition
Not even the passage of eight decades has dimmed Shizuko Nishio's memory of the night American bomber planes killed tens of thousands of people in the space of a few hours and turned her city to ash. In the early hours of 10 March 1945, around 300 B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped 330,000 incendiary devices on Tokyo and killed an estimated 100,000 civilians, in an attack that cost more lives than the atomic bombing, months later, of Nagasaki. But as survivors prepared to mark the 80th anniversary of the attack, the Tokyo firebombing – the worst conventional bombing of the second world war – barely merits a mention. Some of those survivors are launching one final push for recognition. The night before the air raid, Nishio, now 86, was looking forward to celebrating her sixth birthday the following day and to starting primary school. As she slept, the air raid sirens sounded. 'My father told us to flee to the primary school in front of our house,' Nishio said. The school's shelter was already packed, so Nishio and her mother moved to another school basement, leaving her cousin and a nurse behind. The following day, the cousin and nurse were among the charred remains of 200 people who had been 'cooked alive' inside the first shelter as fires raged outside. Nishio was the only survivor in her kindergarten class of 20 children. The B-29s dumped cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese-style wood-and-paper homes in the crowded Shitamachi downtown neighbourhoods. The bombs destroyed 41 sq km (16 sq miles) of the Japanese capital, turning buildings into an inferno and leaving 1 million people homeless. Eclipsed by the tragedies visited on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August the same year, the Tokyo firebombing has been relegated to the darkest recesses of Japan's collective memory, and virtually ignored by successive governments. No one denies that the atomic bombings dramatically altered the course of the war. But the Tokyo firebombing, too, marked a sinister escalation in America's attempt to finally break Japan's resistance. As a result, US Air Force General Curtis LeMay ordered low-altitude attacks using incendiaries that would raze entire cities to the ground. 'By burning them down, you would kill workers or de-house them,' said Overy, author of Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan. 'You would destroy small factories scattered around the domestic residential zones. And that this would contribute in some way to undermining the Japanese war economy. 'There is no doubt that civilians were a deliberate target.' Yoshiaki Tanaka, a professor of ancient history at Senshu University in Tokyo, said many people who lived through the bombings still suffered flashbacks and survivor's guilt. 'Many still experience severe trauma,' says Tanaka, who has met more than 100 survivors over the past 10 years. 'Some of them could not even bring themselves to talk about their experiences, so we suggested that they try drawing pictures, and through that some were able to open up.' There is no national memorial to the firebombing victims, and no official attempt has been made to establish an accurate death toll or to secure testimony from survivors. Those who lived through the bombings are not entitled to compensation from the government. Since the end of the war, Japanese governments have provided ¥60tn ($405bn) in financial support for military veterans and bereaved families, as well as medical support for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the civilian victims of the US firebombings of Tokyo and other cities have received nothing. Japanese courts rejected compensation demands of ¥11m ($74,300) each, arguing that citizens, having been mobilised as part of the war effort, were supposed to endure their suffering. In 2020, a group of MPs proposed a one-time payment of ¥500,000 but the plan was scuppered amid opposition from members of the ruling party. While Tokyo was home to numerous military installations, the bombing of the city's eastern neighbourhoods, primarily Sumida ward, was indiscriminate. 'The aim was to burn all of Sumida ward to the ground,' Tanaka says. Tanaka believes that compensation and a public monument, along with the creation of archives of survivors' testimony, would go some way towards healing the wounds inflicted eight decades ago, and serve as a warning about the horrors of war for future generations. 'It is absolutely right that we honour the victims and survivors of the atomic bombings,' Tanaka said, 'but we should also remember the Tokyo firebombing and look ahead to how we must never let something like that happen again.' Yumi Yoshida, whose parents and sister died in the bombing, is part of a group of survivors demanding that the government recognise their suffering and provide compensation. Given the advanced age of the survivors, and the long wait before the next major anniversary, Yoshida says: 'This year will be our last chance.' Nishio went on to study public health and joined the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. But she was unable to talk about her experiences until after she had retired. Now, the war in Ukraine is again forcing her to recall the night of terror she experienced as a young child. 'I was watching a television report about the situation in Ukraine, and there was a little girl crying in a shelter ... and I thought, 'This is me.'' Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed reporting.
South China Morning Post
10-03-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
In Japan, last survivors of WWII firebombing by US make final push for justice
More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago on Monday in the US firebombing of the Japanese capital of Tokyo. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed downtown Tokyo and filled the streets with heaps of charred bodies. Advertisement 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. Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial help and recognition. Some are speaking out for the first time, trying to tell a younger generation about their lessons. Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, said her mission was to keep telling the history she witnessed at 14, speaking out on behalf of those who died. Shizuyo Takeuchi, 94, shares her experience of the Tokyo firebombing last month in front of a map of the parts of Japan's capital that were damaged. Photo: AP On the night of March 10, 1945, hundreds of B-29s raided Tokyo, dumping cluster bombs with napalm specially designed with sticky oil to destroy traditional Japanese-style wood and paper homes in the crowded shitamachi downtown neighbourhoods. Advertisement
