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JAPAN'S TARGET CITIES

Nagoya, the industrial heart of which our B-29's left in blazing ruin, is Japan's third largest city.  It is almost as big as Los Angeles and, like that city, a prime producer of airplanes.  In the early Nineteen Thirties it was the center of Japanese textile manufacture.  But when Japan decide secretly on war with the United States the emphasis was shifted to heavy industry. Expanding by 20 per cent, Nagoya became a leading producer of machine tools and aluminum.  Now it rivals Tokyo in its output of aircraft.  At least it did until our most recent attack was made.

Japan has six cities of more than a million people each.  They are Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Kyoto and Yokohama.  They are not widely separated, like similar population centers in this country.  All lie along a line of less than 300 miles in length running south-west from Tokyo.  The ancient capital of Kyoto is the only one of the six which is not on tidewater.  Osaka, on the Inland Sea, is Japan's chief port, despite its shallow harbor, and the most highly industrialized city, with war plants scattered over the entire Kinki district.  All these cities are within range of our growing fleet of Superfortresses.

All will be hit by our fliers, for together they supply most of Japan's war potential. There is little doubt that their factories will be thoroughly wrecked, for even Tokyo, where there is much modern constructions replacing the earthquake devastation of 1923, is by no means as substantial as the average German city. Nagoya itself, with its narrow streets, is the typical matchwood town, and damage is severe although it managed to get the bombers' fires under control. Kyota is probably contributing less than the other cities to the enemy war effort, though its art metal workers are now turning out precision machinery.

Obviously the Japanese will try to get all this basic machinery under safe and decentralized shelter. This will not be easy in a country that has only a shallow hinterland. Moreover, bombed-out city dwellers must soon become a major problem in a land that can barely feed itself. The incendiaries we are scattering by the tens of thousands are burning up not only Japan's material resources but Japanese energy, resolution and hope. All are heavy losses.