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Japan Times
23-07-2025
- General
- Japan Times
Woman recounts deadly U.S. bombings of Chiba 80 years ago
As the anniversary of the war's end comes into view, an 87-year-old woman from Chiba is recalling two rounds of deadly U.S. airstrikes that took the lives of over 1,200 people in the city, noting that she's fortunate to have survived. "If the attacks had hit slightly different places, I wouldn't be here," Fumiko Takayama, a former schoolteacher, said. The airstrikes burned down about 60% of the city's urban areas. The first bombing came on the morning of June 10, 1945. A warning siren went off after she finished her breakfast that Sunday. Soon after she started preparations to evacuate to a shelter, the siren changed into an air raid alert. Just as she was about to put on her shoes, a cloud of dust from a blast made it impossible to see anything. Takayama dropped to the ground, covering her eyes, nose and ears with her hands, as she had been taught to at school. Her family hid in a closet and was safe. A few days later, Takayama noticed that part of her protective head covering had been burnt off. "I would have been dead if I hadn't got down," she says. After a bomb hit a nearby hospital, dead bodies were placed on a vacant lot of land in front of her house and she saw corpses with bent arms and legs in a scene that left a lasting impression on her about the destruction of war. Takayama and her neighbors paid respect to the dead as a military truck took away the bodies. The second air raid struck in the small hours of July 7, 1945. Her heart started pounding as she thought "it's another bombing." Her father told his family to evacuate to the sea. As she walked west along the waterfront, the sky was red, and sparks of fire kept falling. Takayama kept walking while soaking her head covering into the seawater again and again so that her clothes would not catch fire. She learned later that people who evacuated in the opposite direction along the seafront were gunned down by U.S. warplanes and died. About 10 years ago, Takayama started to talk about her experience, mainly at elementary and junior high schools, at the suggestion of a former work colleague. "War destroys things, and kills people and hearts," she says. "There's nothing good about war."
07-07-2025
- General
Woman Recounts Deadly U.S. Airstrikes of Chiba 80 Years Ago
Chiba, July 7 (Jiji Press)--An 87-year-old woman from the city of Chiba, east of Tokyo, looked back at two rounds of deadly U.S. airstrikes that took the lives of over 1,200 people in the city in the late stages of the Pacific War, part of World War II, 80 years ago, saying that war kills people and hearts. "If the attacks had hit slightly different places, I wouldn't be here," Fumiko Takayama, a former school teacher, said. The airstrikes burned down about 60 pct of the city's urban areas. The first bombing came on the morning of June 10, 1945. A warning siren went off after she finished her late breakfast that Sunday. Soon after she started preparations to evacuate to a shelter, the siren changed into an air raid alert. Just as she was about to put on her shoes, a cloud of dust from a blast made it impossible to see anything. Takayama dropped to the ground, covering her eyes, nose and ears with her hands, as she had been taught at school. Her family hid in a closet and was safe. A few days later, Takayama noticed that part of her emergency hood had been burnt off. "I would have been dead if I hadn't got down," she says. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
