As another wartime anniversary approached, Setsuko Kawai’s patience grew thinner.
“Soon, none of the victims will be left,” Kawai, 85, said. “It is frustrating that no investigation has been conducted.”
The victims she was referring to are the survivors of the Great Tokyo Air Raid that killed 100,000 people in the capital during World War II.
And the investigation relates to the stalled Diet debate on whether the government should provide compensation to civilian victims of the U.S. air raids.
March 10 marked the 80th anniversary of the raid on Tokyo. Kawai’s mother and two younger brothers died in the attack.
Memorial services were held in various parts of Tokyo’s “shitamachi” area, which was severely damaged by the firebombing.
In the wee hours of March 10, 1945, around 300 U.S. B-29 bombers dropped 330,000 incendiary bombs mainly on present-day Sumida, Koto and Taito wards in Tokyo. The bombs and ensuing fires destroyed an area of about 40 square kilometers.
U.S. firebombing raids were subsequently carried out on other cities across Japan. By the end of the war, many city areas were burned to the ground.
But the full extent of the damage remains unknown, and no progress has been made in providing relief to air raid victims.
According to the health ministry, about 3.1 million Japanese died in the Pacific War, including 2.3 million soldiers and other military personnel.
The estimated 800,000 Japanese civilians who died were killed mainly in the air raids, atomic bombings and the chaos of trying to return to Japan at the end of the war.
A relief law for Japanese military personnel and their bereaved families was enacted in 1952, and in 1953, a benefit-payment system was restored.
The government has so far paid more than 60 trillion yen ($406 billion) for this system, including pensions and other benefits.
Although the government has set up programs to provide relief to “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors, the state has not paid compensation to victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid and similar attacks during World War II.
The government has continued to take the position that “the people should equally endure the damage to their bodies and property that occurs under a state of emergency.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, wartime disaster relief bills for civilians were submitted to the Diet 14 times, but all were scrapped.
However, in 2009, a Tokyo District Court ruling caused a stir.
The court said the civilian compensation issue should be resolved through legislation. This led to the formation of a nonpartisan group of Diet members in 2015.
The group drafted a relief bill that includes a lump-sum payment of 500,000 yen to each civilian victim of air raids and other means. The draft also proposes a survey to determine the extent of damage caused by the raids.
However, the ruling coalition has been unable to reach a consensus, and the bill has not been submitted to the Diet.
“I feel as if I am being told to think of the war as a natural disaster, even though it was a man-made disaster,” Kawai said. “If we are involved in a war in the future, the damage to civilians will be ignored. I want people to think of this as a current problem as well.”