Video testimonies of those who experienced the Tokyo air raids that killed approximately 100,000 people, which had not been released until now, will be released in Tokyo from the 28th.
Seventy-nine years ago, on March 10, 1945, in the early morning hours of the Great Tokyo Air Raid, American bombing caused devastating damage mainly in the downtown area, killing approximately 100,000 people.
In order to preserve the memory of the war, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will hold an exhibition of materials on the Tokyo air raids from the 28th at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater in Ikebukuro, and will release previously unreleased testimonies from 34 people who experienced the attacks. did.
Among them, Iseko Yokotani, who was 30 years old at the time, recalled escaping with her sister and daughter while putting out the fire that was burning through their clothes, and how she saw bodies floating in the school pool like a mountain. I couldn't even cry because I was paralyzed after seeing the bodies of so many people.''
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government had planned to build a facility to pass on the story of the air raids, but the plan was put on hold in 1999 due to conflict in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly over the content of the exhibits, and most of the testimonial videos of 330 people who experienced the raids that were scheduled to be shown at the facility were left behind. It was unpublished.
By the time this exhibition was held, consent had been obtained from 122 people and their families, and the materials will be exhibited at venues in Mitaka City, Chofu City, and other cities over the next month.
A man in his 80s who visited from Kanagawa Prefecture said, ``The testimony was so tragic that it really made me realize that there should never be another war.I'm glad I was able to hear his real voice, which had not been made public.''