The Sky That Terrified Japan in 1945 ✈️💀
Moments after the ceremony on the Missouri concluded, 349 carrier airplanes flew overhead in a massed formation.
They were followed by 462 B-29 Superfortresses, the only other aircraft that had been
able to bomb targets in the Japanese home islands on a regular basis during the war. 462 B-29s.
The same aircraft type that had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The same planes that had firebombed Tokyo, killing 100,000 people in one night.
They flew over the ship where Japan had just signed its unconditional surrender — in a massed
formation that no air force on earth could have matched. It was the largest aerial display of military power in history.
Japan looked up at the sky over Tokyo Bay and saw the machines that had ended their war.
Flying in formation. Over the ship where they had just signed. A reminder that made no further argument necessary.
They were followed by 462 B-29 Superfortresses, the only other aircraft that had been
able to bomb targets in the Japanese home islands on a regular basis during the war. 462 B-29s.
The same aircraft type that had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The same planes that had firebombed Tokyo, killing 100,000 people in one night.
They flew over the ship where Japan had just signed its unconditional surrender — in a massed
formation that no air force on earth could have matched. It was the largest aerial display of military power in history.
Japan looked up at the sky over Tokyo Bay and saw the machines that had ended their war.
Flying in formation. Over the ship where they had just signed. A reminder that made no further argument necessary.
