The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-12-06
Nv LANES r. YOUNG

! BY JAMES X. YOUNG
4 Lowell Thomas broadcast quot
ing this writer on the probable re-
action OF Tokyo's population 10 a
thousand-ton bomb cascade by
B-29s has brought many inquiries.
! am certain the Japs went be-
serk under the IS minute pounding
/ by the B-29s under the command Of
Brig. Gen. Rosy" O'Donnell of
Jamaica. \. Y, gave them on the
first large-scale attack on the Jap
capital. Pandemonium must have
prevailed. Arrogant, conceited and
unprepared mentally for such a
blow, their composure must have
cracked.
Automatically the Kolso-Yonai
cabinet must submit its resigna-
tion to the emperor. II bombs fell
on the palace by accident" high
officials would make hara kiri at.
| tempts.
In the Doolittle raid the Japs re-
/ ported 1000 casualties and fires
lasting four days. Two colonies Of
the eastern air defense command
committed suicide. Their chief
was "hospitalized' suddenly for a
/ check.up.
The Japanese, for reason, have a
fear Of large-scale conflagration
greater than other peoples. Arson
IN Japan Is punishable by death.
| observed the inadequacy of fire
| hghtlng equipment when | covered
| three sensational conflagrations.
Shidzuoka, a provincial capital com
parable to Springfield. ILL.,, in a
rich agricultural region lost 5000
houses and stores from 4 p. m. one
day to II a. m. the next. Hako.
| date, a seaport of the size and i'm.
/ por' nee OF Baltimore had 10000
houses, stores and factories in
ashes in an all night winter blaze,
leaving a half million survivors
/ wandering In snow and ice.
Shirokiya's department store,
eight stories high, steel and CON
crete, was Christmas holiday in.
ferno. Shoppers escaping to the
| top floor faced monkeys, tigers
and mountain lions in a miniature
roof garden ZOO.
As an eyewitness noted that
| from Tokyo's Al fire stations no
hook and ladder equipment could
reach above three stories. Air.
| planes dropped rope for stranded
| store patrons to lower themselves
five stories to the tops Of exten.
sion ladders.
In a B-29 visitation. thousands
seeking to escape by leaping into
the city's innumerable canals,
would be scorched by fiery embers
blown from adjacent warehouses,
or they might die in public parks
which would be converted into In
/ cilerators filled with citizens fee.
| ing the holocaust set by our non
extinguishable 500 pound COOP"
incendiary blockbusters. One To.
kyo park once was a funeral pyre
for $4,000 people.
Suburban factory area workers
would suffocate in the narrow
streets as the oxygen Is consumed
| by the flames. Death would come
firm topping bricks. blocks of ce-
ment and battered tin from falling
chimneys, for in no city are there
even half as many smokestacks as
in Tokyo.
IN a large scale bombing Of their
| capital city, seven million Japs
Won. y face cremation. notwith-
G 'nding urgent air raid precau-
tons beginning last summer when
thousands of houses, factories and
street sections were demolished by
squads OF school children to create
| fire breaks.
| Excepting 100000 school children
do not believe the raid. jittery
Japs have accomplished wholesale
evacuation. Mass decentralization
would create fear and undermine
morale in other cities.
No safe escape route is available.
| Congestion is unavoidable on the
three main highways. one west
from the crowded Shlnjuku resi-.
dSntial and factory ward, the sec
ond cutting through the Sumida
River arsenal and ammunition
plants on the road to Nikko. Three
bridges on the Tokyo.Yokohama
| highway. II blasted, would block a