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To: neodad
There were over 100,000 Japanese civilian casualties in fire bombing raids of Tokyo. Conventional weapons wreaked far more casualties than those two bombs.

But yet, those raids seriously impeded Japanese war materiel production because at the time, production of a long list of these items were done in small shops located in the city. The Japanese--if they had been just a bit smarter--would have safely hidden most of their war production in underground, bomb-proof factories like the Germans did later in World War II.

One of the things that always bothered me was why after the horrific experience of uncontrolled fires from the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 the Japanese government allowed cities to be rebuilt mostly of wood again. You'd think they would have mandated more fireproof structures....

21 posted on 08/05/2005 5:38:04 AM PDT by RayChuang88
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To: RayChuang88
One of the things that always bothered me was why after the horrific experience of uncontrolled fires from the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 the Japanese government allowed cities to be rebuilt mostly of wood again. You'd think they would have mandated more fireproof structures....

Japan has always been seriously short of raw materials, including metals. Alternatives to wood construction (which is relatively cheap) might have included masonry or concrete construction, but neither of those are attractive in an earthquake zone -- unless you use a lot of re-bar. Then you are back to competing with Japanese war industry for consumption of metal.

26 posted on 08/05/2005 6:25:48 AM PDT by Tallguy
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