MELBOURNE: Bombs have fallen in the Japanese Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo, damaging the Manor, according to a Tokyo home broadcast pic­ked up here. The Japanese News Agency reports that about 40 super fortresses bombed Chubu District of Central Japan today [Dec 13]. The News Agency added that Allied planes appeared over the Tokyo and Yokohama regions too.

The U.S. War Department announced that super-fortresses bombed industrial targets on the Japanese island of Honshu today. The statement said: “This is another attack on the Japanese mainland by B-29s on Saipan in the mounting aerial drive on the enemy’s strategic targets”.

A London message says that the precincts of the Japanese Imperial Palace in which according to the Japanese Radio, bombs have fallen, consist of the inner enclosure being jealously guarded against intrusion by unauthorised persons. The Palace itself is a labyrinthine collection of temple-like buildings.

An earlier message from London reported: The German Overseas News Agency quoting a Tokyo report says several American bombers dropped incendiaries over Tokyo today. The Agency announcing new evacuation from Tokyo said that 20,000 people will leave the city today. They include aged and sick person, children and expectant mothers.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2019