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29th May 1945

A German fleeing from Yokohama by car arrived in Miyanoshita gibbering with hysteria. From what we could make out Yokohama had been wiped out in a concentrated daylight raid. It was the first big raid on Yokohama; it will probably be the last because there is nothing left to bomb.

“They came from everywhere,” stammered the German. “It was like midnight. We could see nothing. Everything was covered by fire and smoke. There were people all around me burning alive.”

We did not know him so we did not speak to him but only listened from a distance. He was a stumpy red-faced man with soot in his hair and naked fear in his eyes.