Bombing of Tokyo The bombing of Tokyo , often referred to as a " firebombing " , was conducted as part of the air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II . The U . S . mounted a small - scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942 . Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long - range B - 29 Superfortress bomber entered service , first deployed from China and thereafter the Mariana Islands . B - 29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944 and lasted until 15 August 1945 , the day Japan capitulated . The Operation Meetinghouse air raid of 9 – 10 March 1945 was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in history . Doolittle Raid . The first raid on Tokyo was the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942 , when sixteen B - 25 Mitchell s were launched from USS " Hornet " to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China . The raid was the retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . The raid did no damage to Japan ' s war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States . Launched prematurely , none of the attacking aircraft reached the designated airfields , either crashing or ditching ( except for one aircraft which landed in the Soviet Union , where the crew was officially interned and secretly repatriated ) . Two crews were captured by the Japanese in occupied China and later killed in violation of the Geneva Convention protocols for POWs . B - 29 raids . The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B - 29 bomber plane , which had an operational range of 3 , 250 nautical miles ( 6 , 019 km ) and was capable of attacking at high altitude above where enemy defenses were very weak . Almost 90 % of the bombs dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this type of bomber . Once Allied ground forces had captured islands sufficiently close to Japan , airfields were built on those islands ( particularly Saipan and Tinian ) and B - 29s could reach Japan for bombing missions . The initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command , but these could not reach Tokyo . Operations from the Northern Mariana Islands commenced in November 1944 after the XXI Bomber Command was activated there . The B - 29s of XX Bomber Command were transferred to XXI Bomber Command in the spring of 1945 and based on Guam . The high altitude bombing attacks using general purpose bombs were observed to be ineffective by USAAF leaders . Changing tactics to expand the coverage and increase the damage , Curtis LeMay ordered the bombers to fly lower ( 4 , 500 – 8 , 000 ft , 1 , 400 – 2 , 400 m ) and drop incendiary bombs to burn Japan ' s vulnerable wood - and - paper buildings . The first such raid on Tokyo was in February 1945 when 174 B - 29s destroyed around one square mile ( 1 . 6 km² ) of Tokyo . The next month , 334 B - 29s took off to raid on the night of 9 – 10 March ( " Operation Meetinghouse " ) , with 279 of them dropping around 1 , 700 tons of bombs . Fourteen B - 29s were lost . Approximately of the city were destroyed and some 100 , 000 people are estimated to have died in the resulting firestorm , more immediate deaths than either of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The US Strategic Bombing Survey later estimated that nearly 88 , 000 people died in this one raid , 41 , 000 were injured , and over a million residents lost their homes . The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher toll : 97 , 000 killed and 125 , 000 wounded . The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a figure of 124 , 711 casualties including both killed and wounded and 286 , 358 buildings and homes destroyed . Richard Rhodes , historian , put deaths at over 100 , 000 , injuries at a million and homeless residents at a million . These casualty and damage figures could be low ; Mark Selden wrote in " Japan Focus " : The destruction and damage were greatest in the parts of the city to the east of the Imperial Palace . Over 50 % of Tokyo was destroyed by the end of World War II . The " Operation Meetinghouse " firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9 / 10 March 1945 was the single deadliest air raid of World War II ; greater than Dresden , Hiroshima , or Nagasaki as single events . Other attacks . Additional missions against Tokyo targets were carried out by twin - engine bombers and by fighter - bombers . Results . Damage to Tokyo ' s heavy industry was slight until firebombing destroyed much of the light industry that was used as an integral source for small machine parts and time - intensive processes . Firebombing also killed or made homeless many workers who had been taking part in war industry . Over 50 % of Tokyo ' s industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods ; firebombing cut the whole city ' s output in half . The destruction and damage was especially severe in the eastern areas of the city . The Imperial Palace was surrounded by areas destroyed by firebombing . The main Palace itself ( Kyūden ) , home of the Imperial General Headquarters , took heavy damage by fire , even though bombing it was specifically prohibited by USAAF order . Emperor Hirohito ' s tour of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March 1945 is said to have been the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process , culminating in Japan ' s surrender six months later . Postwar recovery . After the war , Tokyo struggled to rebuild . In 1945 / 1946 , the city received a share of the national reconstruction budget roughly proportional to its amount of bombing damage ( 26 . 6 % ) , but in successive years Tokyo saw its share dwindle . By 1949 , Tokyo was given only 10 . 9 % of the budget ; at the same time there was runaway inflation devaluing the money as Japan was spending more than it was bringing in from taxes . Occupation authorities such as Joseph Dodge stepped in and drastically cut back on Japanese government rebuilding programs , focusing instead on simply improving roads and transportation . Tokyo did not experience fast economic growth until the 1950s . Between 1948 and 1951 the ashes of 105 , 400 people killed in the attacks on Tokyo were interred in Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward . A memorial to the raids was opened in the park in March 2001 . Postwar apology . In 2007 , Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzō apologized in print , acknowledging Japan ' s guilt in the bombing of Chinese cities and civilians beginning in 1938 . He wrote that the Japanese government should have surrendered as soon as losing the war was inevitable , an action that would have prevented Tokyo from being firebombed in March 1945 , as well as subsequent bombings of other cities . After the war , Japanese author Katsumoto Saotome , a survivor of the 10 March 1945 fire bombing , helped start a library about the raid in Koto Ward called the Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damages . The library contains documents and literature about the raid plus survivor accounts collected by Saotome and the Association to Record the Tokyo Air Raid .