Activist demands Japan revoke award for US general behind 500,000 deaths in WWII

A peace activist has demanded Japan revoke a post-war honour bestowed on Curtis LeMay, the late US air force chief who masterminded the firebombing of the country’s cities that resulted in an estimated 500,000 deaths during the closing stages of World War II.

Gushiken Takamatsu, founder of the Gamafuya group, submitted a petition to the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on Monday, the 80th anniversary of “Operation Meetinghouse” involving US B-29 bombers which killed 100,000 civilians in the Japanese capital.

“LeMay’s bombers dropped firebombs that killed 100,000 people,” Takamatsu told This Week in Asia. “I cannot help but ask why the Japanese government later thought it was appropriate to give him an official award.”

The officer received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun accolade in 1964 for helping to rebuild Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force in the years after its surrender.

Takamatsu, who has for more than 40 years been searching the countless caves in his native Okinawa to recover the bones of about 150,000 victims of the fierce battle for the islands, said LeMay did not deserve the medal and it should be “taken away”.

“No one can understand why he was recognised in this way,” he said. “Even people in the Japanese military say they cannot understand it. I strongly believe that he should never have been given the award.”