Paper City: Surviving the world’s deadliest air raid
Video duration 47 minutes 20 seconds
Survivors of the 1945 bombing of Tokyo are campaigning for official recognition of this forgotten tragedy.
Just after midnight on March 10, 1945, the United States launched a massive air raid on Tokyo, unleashing a firestorm on a densely populated area of wooden and paper houses.
By dawn, more than 100,000 people had been killed and a quarter of the Japanese city had been destroyed, making it the most devastating air raid in history.
Unlike their loved ones, survivors Hiroshi Hoshino, Michiko Kiyooka, and Minoru Tsukiyama made it out alive. Yet the Japanese government has refused to formally recognize their requests for recognition and compensation, and after seven decades they are brushed aside — while former soldiers have been generously treated by the state.
Paper City is a movie directed by Adrian Francis.