Chronicler of Tokyo firebombing, Katsumoto Saotome, dies aged 90

Katsumoto Saotome, the writer who gathered the accounts of survivors of the US firebombing of Tokyo in the Second World War, has died of organ failure at the age of 90.

A native of Tokyo, Saotome was 12 when he survived the firebombing of the city on March 10 1945.

More than 105,000 people are estimated to have died and a million were made homeless in a single night, but the devastation has been largely eclipsed by the US atomic bombings of two Japanese cities several months later.

After the war, Saotome pursued his writing while working in a factory.

In 1970, he began visiting survivors of the firebombing to hear their stories and to let their voices be heard and established a group to document the firebombing and collect documents and artefacts about the

attack, leading to the establishment of the Centre of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, in 2002.

He continued to publish magazines about the firebombing while also writing books for children and young adults to raise awareness of the tragedy.

“We must hand the baton to the younger generation” to keep retelling the story,

Saotome said in an interview with NHK in 2019.

Many of the survivors of the firebombing feel they were forgotten by history and by the government.

Post-war governments have provided a total of 60 trillion yen (£370 billion) in welfare support for military veterans and bereaved families, and medical support for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but nothing for civilian victims of the firebombing.

Acclaimed film-maker Yoji Yamada, a long-time friend of Saotome, told Japanese media he was “deeply saddened by the loss of his precious friend with whom he discussed post-war Japan, war and peace”.

Yamada said he often visited the Centre of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage museum, and Saotome often gave him tours of the area.

Katsumoto Saotome.