THE DAMAGED JAPANESE FIGHTER

The buffeting was intense, his plane was flying but badly damaged. He tried to climb toward the bomber but the engine wasn’t running properly and the plane would not climb. It was shaking and he was not sure it would continue flying. The tower didn’t respond to his call for help. He thought maybe his radio was out. He flew to the airport hoping to land before the plane ceased flying but the tower was gone and the runway was littered with pieces of burning planes and pieces of hangers. As he buzzed the airport for the second time to look for a place to land he saw that the area of the town where he and his family lived was burning. He wondered how one plane could do such damage. The column of smoke that rose from the city looked like a mushroom. “Would his wife and baby be alive?” he wondered. After two more circles and a pass over an alternate field that was also badly damaged he flew over the area where his family lived and parachuted to the ground. The Army found his body next to that of his wife and baby several days later. They were killed by the collapse of their home, he by his own sword. He had failed to protect his home, the only honorable act was suicide.

Nagoya had a large round scar in it. The center of the scar was just about a hundred yards north of the aiming point, a good job of bombing from high altitude. Nearly 150,000 of its people were dead and well over a hundred thousand would die from the fires and injuries within the next few days. A quarter of its population would be gone along with well over half of the houses, schools and industry. Not one hospital survived. The bomb had exploded about a half mile from the airport. It was totally destroyed. Help couldn’t be expected from that quarter. Most of the rail lines into the city were destroyed. Had Nagoya been the only city attacked Japan would have suffered a disaster but help could have come from other cities. Unfortunately this was not the case. In those terrible thirty seconds, Nagoya, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and nine other cities had also felt the heat of atomic fire.

SOUTH OF TOKYO

Bombers 14 and 15 turned on their final heading of 330 — right up Tokyo Bay. They had passed their checkpoints on time. In ten minutes they would drop their bombs and head for home. Fighters kept coming up to assault them, usually in pairs and threes. The three guard planes kept knocking them down like ducks in a shooting gallery. As with other planes it became evident that leaving two minutes before the drop would expose the bombers to high risk before the drop and for an additional 5 to 7 minutes after the drop. The three guard pilots reported that they would be staying with the bombers, all the way. Guard 17 would fly with Bomber 15 when the two planes parted for the drop. The guards and bombers would make the turn together. During the conversation the gunners shot down an additional two fighters.