We should re-examine this tragedy from all angles.

March 10 marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. fire-bombing of Tokyo, an event which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives.

Toward the end of the Pacific War, large and small cities across Japan were subjected to indiscriminate bombing by U.S. aircraft. The death toll from the bombings was estimated at around 300,000, roughly the same level as those for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

The raid on Tokyo coincided with commemorations due to be marked that day by the former Imperial Japanese Army. U.S. forces sent 300 B29 bombers to unload 1,700 tons of incendiary bombs over Tokyo. The carpet bombing of urban areas marked a change in strategy for the United States, which previously had pinpointed military targets such as weapons factories.

At the time, the late calligrapher Yuichi Inoue was on night duty at Yokokawa Kokumin Gakko (national elementary school) in Honjo Ward (today's Sumida Ward), where he was a teacher. Airstrikes got under way in the wee hours of March 10. Neighborhood residents rushed to the school building for safety. But raging flames enveloped it, shattering glass windows and demolishing it.

Inoue narrowly escaped. What he witnessed was a gruesome sight. In 1978, Inoue produced a work of calligraphy titled ``Ah, Yokokawa Kokumin Gakko,'' in which he described people's death throes.

``The sight of bodies reduced to bleached bones resembles that of crematoriums. A fetus is exposed from the abdomen of a naked woman who was burned alive. The horror is beyond description.... Ah, what is the reason behind this carnage of innocent people?'' People who read his words of anger can almost hear the cries of the dying people.

Records show that about 70,000 bodies, or 65 percent of the total, were so badly burned it was impossible to determine their gender. Together with other victims of the war, their ashes are kept in 450 large white porcelain urns at a cenotaph in Sumida Ward that is operated by the Tokyo metropolitan government. Under normal circumstances, they would have been buried in individual plots.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum, which is close to the cenotaph, has on display a map of areas that were bombed. It was drawn based on newly found data, including name lists, and links their addresses and the places where they met their deaths. It covers about 700 people.

Also on display is a copy of ``Boku Shimbun'' (air-defense newspaper) that has turned brown. It was published by The Asahi Shimbun under the guidance of the military command covering eastern Japan, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Metropolitan Police Department. The newspaper, dated Dec. 5, 1944, carries a story about incendiary bombs under the headline ``Even women and children can hold them.'' The newspaper was circulated within neighborhoods and many people had affixed their seals on the last page to show they had read it.

The ``air-defense law'' that required citizens to stand resolute in disasters was thus passed on to every corner of Japan. As a result, many people failed to flee to safety in time. As employees of the same newspaper, we vow never to repeat the same mistake.

Also, as the number of air-raid survivors declines year by year, we must make renewed efforts to pass down to posterity the story of this uncommon tragedy. This can be done by making use of records kept by Japan and the United States and by preserving areas that were ravaged by war.

Japan must re-examine this terrible tragedy from many angles. In doing so, it can share the profound grief of Asians who were victims of Japanese military aggression. The process also helps us understand the anger of Iraqi residents who are being subjected 60 years later to the same tactics.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 10(IHT/Asahi: March 11,2005)