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Authors: Akira Yoshimura
Tags: General Fiction
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had attacked Hamamatsu and another thirty had raided the city of Yokkaichi, both attacks involving incendiaries and resulting in firestorms so destructive that the targets were virtually burnt to cinders. To date, the number of aircraft involved in bombing raids on targets in Japan had soared to over twenty thousand, claiming somefour hundred thousand lives, destroying one million six hundred thousand homes and producing six million three hundred thousand refugees.
The next morning brought blue skies, with the meteorological office forecasting fine weather all over Kyushu. To those in the tactical operations centre, this meant a drastically increased likelihood of large-scale bombing raids, and orders were issued for spotters to be particularly vigilant.
The daylight hours passed uneventfully, and when the sun dipped low in the evening the bright red of the western sky signalled that another fine day would follow. Within minutes of the sunset the sky was a mass of twinkling stars.
That night, at 7.50 p.m., a report came in from an electronic listening-post set to cover the Hyuga coastline that a force of aircraft was heading north-west over that quadrant of the Kyushu defensive perimeter. As there was nothing to suggest that this was friendly aircraft on patrol, Takuya immediately assumed that it was a force of B-29s from Saipan and issued an air-raid warning to all areas of northern Kyushu.
Knowing that a lone Superfortress had flown a reconnaissance mission over Fukuoka the previous night, Takuya expected that before long Kyushuâs largest city would bear the brunt of an attack. Thousands of tons of incendiaries had already reduced major urban centres such as Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to scorched wastelands, but so far the attacks on Kyushu had mostly been limited to military targets or munitions factories, and the island had been spared thesaturation raids aimed at razing towns and cities to the ground. Okinawa was now completely in American hands, and it was likely that their next move would be to obliterate the cities of Kyushu before launching an invasion force on to its beaches.
Red lights lit up on the otherwise darkened map of Kyushu on the wall of the operations room as one report after another of aircraft intruding into the perimeter came in from electronic listening-points. The sequence of the lights indicated that the enemy bombers were proceeding on a course toward northern Kyushu.
Processing the incoming data, Takuya realised that this force, comprising around seventy aircraft, had split into two separate groups somewhere over Hita city in Oita prefecture. Around ten planes were continuing straight on their original course, while the other sixty had veered slightly to the north-west. It was presumed that the ten aircraft were on what would be the fifth mission to drop mines in the Kanmon Strait, adding to the total of eighty planes that had already done so, and that the other, larger group was heading for Fukuoka. When incoming reports confirmed beyond a doubt that Fukuoka was indeed the target, the tactical operations centre immediately issued an air-raid warning for the city and its environs.
The first word that intruders had entered Fukuoka airspace came from Dazaifu, just south-east of the metropolitan area, and was soon followed by reports of aircraft sighted above the city itself. Takuya knew from the data that the bombers were deploying at a low level over the city, and by now would have started their bombing runs. The intrudersappeared to have followed the line of the Nakagawa river into the city and then dropped their load on Shin-Yanagi-Machi and the HigashiâNakasu area, resulting in a rash of reports of fires raging in those areas.
Those in the tactical operations centre, a construction set partially into the ground and cased in reinforced concrete, were removed from the thunderous blasts of exploding bombs and the clamour of a city in the throes of incineration. Takuya and his fellow
The next morning brought blue skies, with the meteorological office forecasting fine weather all over Kyushu. To those in the tactical operations centre, this meant a drastically increased likelihood of large-scale bombing raids, and orders were issued for spotters to be particularly vigilant.
The daylight hours passed uneventfully, and when the sun dipped low in the evening the bright red of the western sky signalled that another fine day would follow. Within minutes of the sunset the sky was a mass of twinkling stars.
That night, at 7.50 p.m., a report came in from an electronic listening-post set to cover the Hyuga coastline that a force of aircraft was heading north-west over that quadrant of the Kyushu defensive perimeter. As there was nothing to suggest that this was friendly aircraft on patrol, Takuya immediately assumed that it was a force of B-29s from Saipan and issued an air-raid warning to all areas of northern Kyushu.
Knowing that a lone Superfortress had flown a reconnaissance mission over Fukuoka the previous night, Takuya expected that before long Kyushuâs largest city would bear the brunt of an attack. Thousands of tons of incendiaries had already reduced major urban centres such as Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to scorched wastelands, but so far the attacks on Kyushu had mostly been limited to military targets or munitions factories, and the island had been spared thesaturation raids aimed at razing towns and cities to the ground. Okinawa was now completely in American hands, and it was likely that their next move would be to obliterate the cities of Kyushu before launching an invasion force on to its beaches.
Red lights lit up on the otherwise darkened map of Kyushu on the wall of the operations room as one report after another of aircraft intruding into the perimeter came in from electronic listening-points. The sequence of the lights indicated that the enemy bombers were proceeding on a course toward northern Kyushu.
Processing the incoming data, Takuya realised that this force, comprising around seventy aircraft, had split into two separate groups somewhere over Hita city in Oita prefecture. Around ten planes were continuing straight on their original course, while the other sixty had veered slightly to the north-west. It was presumed that the ten aircraft were on what would be the fifth mission to drop mines in the Kanmon Strait, adding to the total of eighty planes that had already done so, and that the other, larger group was heading for Fukuoka. When incoming reports confirmed beyond a doubt that Fukuoka was indeed the target, the tactical operations centre immediately issued an air-raid warning for the city and its environs.
The first word that intruders had entered Fukuoka airspace came from Dazaifu, just south-east of the metropolitan area, and was soon followed by reports of aircraft sighted above the city itself. Takuya knew from the data that the bombers were deploying at a low level over the city, and by now would have started their bombing runs. The intrudersappeared to have followed the line of the Nakagawa river into the city and then dropped their load on Shin-Yanagi-Machi and the HigashiâNakasu area, resulting in a rash of reports of fires raging in those areas.
Those in the tactical operations centre, a construction set partially into the ground and cased in reinforced concrete, were removed from the thunderous blasts of exploding bombs and the clamour of a city in the throes of incineration. Takuya and his fellow
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