Teruo Kanoh was born on 3 December 1930 in Asakusa’s Shinyoshiwara-sumicho district. During the 10 March 1945 firebombing raid on Tokyo, Kanoh, 14 years old at the time, lost both of his parents and two sisters. In this June 2011 interview (conducted by Bret Fisk and Cary Karacas; transcribed and translated by Eri Tsuji), Kanoh…
Category: 体験者の声 – Survivor Voices
二瓶治代 – Haruyo Nihei
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Haruyo Nihei, living in the Kameido district of Jōtō Ward (now Kōtō Ward) with her parents and two siblings, experienced the 10 March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo as a seven-year-old. In this June 2011 interview (conducted by Cary Karacas, transcribed and translated by Eri Tsuji), she discusses her life as a child during and after the…
橋本代志子 – Yoshiko Hashimoto
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In early 1945, Hashimoto Yoshiko – then 24 years old and the mother of a one-year-old son – lived in Tokyo’s Honjo Ward (now Sumida Ward) with her siblings and parents. In this June 2011 interview (conducted by Cary Karacas, and transcribed and translated by Eri Tsuji), she describes the experience of the…
丹信義 – Nobuyoshi Tan
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Nobuyoshi Tan experienced the Tokyo air raids as small child. The Tan family’s home was burned down during a night raid on 23 May 1945. The same night a parachute used by an American airman landed on Tan’s head. Tan’s descriptions of the war years are remarkable for their rich attention to detail.
清岡美智子 – Michiko Kiyo-oka
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Michiko Kiyo-oka was twenty-one years old at the time of the 10 March 1945 air raid on Tokyo’s Shitamachi district. Her family consisted of her parents, her elder sister, and herself. Kiyo-oka’s family lived in the Umamichi neighborhood of Asakusa, near the famous Sensoji temple. On the night of 10 March, her family fled to…
戸田成正 – Shigemasa Toda
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Shigemasa Toda was born in 1930. He was fourteen years old at the time he was injured by an incendiary bomb during an air raid on Tokyo on 13 April 1945. In the following video, Toda describes losing his mother in the same raid and the process of locating his father after having spent months recuperating…
金田茉莉 – Mari Kaneda
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Mari Kaneda was nine years old in 1945. As a third grader, she participated in the government’s evacuation program for children and had been living away from her mother and two sisters for several months. However, because her mother had asked that she be sent home, Kaneda returned to Tokyo on the morning of March…
早乙女勝元 – Saotome Katsumoto
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Born in 1932, SAOTOME Katsumoto experienced the Tokyo air raids of 1944-45 as a junior high school student. He was born and raised in an area of Tokyo that was hit particularly hard by the B-29 incendiary raids. Because Saotome’s family continued to live in this neighborhood for the duration of the war, he was exposed…
大竹正春 – Masaharu Ohtake
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（日本語） The following is a translation of a letter received from Masaharu Ohtake on October 12, 2010. Mr. Ohtake describes his experiences during the March 10, 1945 incendiary air raid on Tokyo. The Air Raid on Sunamachi In those days, my family lived at Minami Sunamachi 1-958 in the Joto Ward (now Koto Ward). However,…