WWII: Bombing of Tokyo (Billfold)

Codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo by the U.S. Air Force conducted on the night of 9-10 March 1945 is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. Most of the buildings in the Japanese capital were made of wood; 16 square miles of central Tokyo were destroyed in the attack, killing 100,000 civilians and leaving over a million residents homeless. _x000D__x000D_The city’s industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods. The firebombing cut the city’s output in half. Japan would surrender five months later, after the U.S. dropped _x000D_atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki._x000D__x000D_This 50 sen note was in circulation in Japan from 1942-45. Fire damage of the note indicates that it may have been in use in Tokyo during the bombing campaign. Yasukuni Shrine, pictured on the note, _x000D_is a Shinto shrine located in Tokyo that, ironically, commemorates Japanese war dead