Fifteen-year-old Aki Amatsu and her mother were living in Kyobashi, Tokyo, when the United States Army conducted the Great Tokyo Air Raid (東京大空襲) on the night of March 9, 1945.
Aki and her mother ran into a shelter and survived. Like many other survivors, she recalls the sound of rain that night. The sound came from the Boeing B-29 unleashing an overwhelming number of falling bombs—500,000 M-69 bombs, each containing 38 incendiary bomblets. The sheer volume created a noise reminiscent of rainfall. Survivors also described witnessing the lighted cotton streamers of the incendiary bomblets falling like a fiery rain against the dark sky.
Aki and her mother lost everything. They slept at a train station with other survivors. It was still cold in March, and she remembers how bitterly cold it was, sleeping in the snow.
Eventually, Aki found work as a housemaid at Washington Heights—the U.S. military housing complex in Yoyogi, Tokyo. The American family she worked for treated her with kindness and care. They loved her like a daughter and invited her to move to the United States.
She later married a Nisei man, Takeo, and raised two children. Now 95 years old, Aki lives peacefully in the San Fernando Valley, surrounded by her family, and continues to enjoy cooking and gardening.
“War is only about destruction. It brings nothing good.”
- Aki (Amatsu) Nakamura
- Aki (Amatsu) Nakamura
