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Evacuations of civilians in Japan during World War II

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Schoolchildren being evacuated in August 1944

It has been estimated that 8.5 million Japanese civilians were displaced from their homes between 1943 and 1945 as a result of Air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). These evacuations started in December 1943 as a voluntary government program to prepare the country's main cities for bombing raids by evacuating children, women and the elderly to rural towns. After American bombers started to destroy entire cities in 1945[citation needed] millions more civilians fled to the countryside.

History

In late 1943 the Government of Japan developed plans to evacuate non-essential personnel from Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and the cities in northern Kyushu. Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō initially opposed implementing these plans due to the damage they were likely to cause to morale and family cohesion, but eventually agreed to them in order to minimize civilian casualties so that Japan's population could be regenerated for future wars.[1]

The Government launched a voluntary evacuation program in December 1943 which encouraged old people, children and their mothers to move from the main cities and stay in the homes of friends and relatives in rural areas. The government provided civilians with little assistance to evacuate, however.[1][2] Few people evacuated until the raid by American heavy bombers on Japan, an attack on Yawata, in June 1944 after which the Government urged families to evacuate their children.[2] As a result, 459,000 children and their parents moved to stay with friends and relatives. For families without contacts in the countryside entire school classes also evacuated as groups accompanied by their teachers, and by August 1944 333,000 children had been relocated to rural areas where they continued their education in inns, temples and other public buildings. A further 343,000 urban residents were also forced to leave their homes when they were destroyed to create firebreaks; these people either moved to the country or lived in temporary accommodation near their workplace.[1]

The number of evacuees increased greatly after the firebombing of Tokyo on 9 March 1945. After this attack all schoolchildren in the third to sixth grades were required to leave the main cities, and 87 percent of them had been moved to the countryside by early April. As the American firebombing campaign continued millions more Japanese civilians fled from their homes into rural areas, overwhelming the Government's evacuation plans.[1] By June 1945 millions of Japanese civilians had been rendered homeless by air raids and the evacuation of survivors meant that many of the remaining factories were unable to find sufficient workers.[3] Between June and August 1945 American bombers dropped propaganda leaflets over several Japanese cities warning that they would be bombed and urging civilians to evacuate; these persuaded many residents of the cities to leave and reduced public confidence in the Japanese Army while also convincing civilians that the Americans were attempting to minimize casualties.[4][5] Overall, 8.5 million Japanese civilians were displaced as a result of the American raids, including 120,000 of Hiroshima's population of 365,000 who evacuated the city prior to the atomic bomb attack on it in August 1945.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Dear and Foot (2005), p. 484
  2. ^ a b Daniels (1981)
  3. ^ Craven and Cate (1953), p. 643
  4. ^ Szasz (2009), p. 537
  5. ^ Craven and Cate (1953), pp. 656–657
  6. ^ Craven and Cate (1953), pp. 715, 755

References

  • Craven, Wesley (1953). The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki. The Army Air Forces in World War II. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Daniels, Gordon (31 December 1981). "Before Hiroshima: The Bombing of Japan 1944-45". HistoryToday. 32 (1). Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  • Dear, I.C.B and Foot, M.R.D. (editors) (2005). The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192806703. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Kerr, E. Bartlett (1991). Flames Over Tokyo: The U.S. Army Air Forces' Incendiary Campaign Against Japan 1944-1945. New York City: Donald I. Fine Inc. ISBN 1556113013.
  • Szasz, Ferenc Morton (31 May 2009). ""Pamphlets Away": The Allied Propaganda Campaign Over Japan During the Last Months of World War II". The Journal of Popular Culture. 42 (3): 530–540. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2009.00694.x.

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