On the night of 910 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces launched Operation Meetinghouse the single most destructive air raid in history.

Nearly 300 B-29 Superfortresses crossed the Japanese coast at low altitude and struck Tokyo with incendiary weapons designed not just to destroy factories, but to ignite the city itself. Within hours, entire districts were burning. Firestorms consumed neighbourhoods faster than civilians could flee. By morning, over 100,000 people were dead and more than a million were homeless.