Tokyo Victims of Us Firebombing Sue Japan for Starting War

More than 60 years after their homes were turned into infernos by US B-29 bombers, a group of Tokyo residents has demanded compensation from the Japanese government for starting the war and not acting quickly enough to end it. This weekend marked the 62nd anniversary of the bombing on March 10 1945, in which an estimated 100,000 people died in a firestorm that engulfed much of the city.

Local media reported that 112 people are seeking 11 million yen (£48,000) each in the first suit of its kind. The group, made up of survivors and relatives of the dead, claimed that the air raids would never have occurred had Tokyo ended the war in the summer of 1944, when it was clear that defeat was unavoidable.

Japanese civilians' right to claim reparations from Washington was waived as part of the 1951 peace treaty between the two countries.

The plaintiffs said they had the same constitutional right to compensation as soldiers and their families. "The government should recognise that all of Japan was a battlefield at the time," the lawsuit said. The group's leader, Hiroshi Hoshino, told reporters: "You might wonder why we are doing this after 62 years, but the fact is that the state has not studied the realities of the damage or provided any redress."

Mieko Toyomura, who lost four members of her family in the raid and was seriously injured in a later bombing, said: "I have lived and worked in desperation all these years with only one arm and with no assistance. The tears keep falling when I look back at what happened."

The lawsuit coincided with the publication this weekend of diaries by the chamberlain to Japan's wartime emperor, Hirohito, showing that Hirohito had been reluctant to go to war against China in 1937, but had later said that Japan had to see the conflict through to the end.

In October 1940 Hirohito conceded that Japan had underestimated China. "I did not want to see this war with China begin," he was quoted as saying. "China is stronger than expected. Everybody made mistakes in war projections."

But on Christmas Day 1941, soon after the attack of Pearl Harbor, Hirohito talked enthusiastically about visiting islands in the South Pacific after the war, by which time they would be part of the empire.