Episode Details

The raid begins just after midnight on March 10, with napalm bombs designed to puncture roofs and spray flaming gel inside Tokyo's wooden homes. The resulting fires quickly meld into a catastrophic firestorm that consumes 16 square miles of the city. Survivors recount the horror of hurricane-force winds and a "tidal wave of fire" that causes people's clothing and hair to spontaneously ignite. Families who fled to primitive home shelters often died from the heat, while those in concrete communal shelters were incinerated when the glass windows melted, allowing superheated air and toxic gases to rush inside. The firestorm becomes its own weather system, overwhelming all traditional firefighting efforts and creating a vacuum that pulls in cold air to feed the inferno. Photographer Coyo Ishikawa documents the apocalypse, describing the phenomena as a wave crest approaching from the ocean as the fire devours the world's most densely populated districts. 6/8
1959 LEMAY