While the March 9-10, 1945, bombing of Tokyo was the deadliest raid of the war, for sheer totality of destruction it was eclipsed by the August 1, 1945, firebomb raid on Toyama.

More than 99% of the city, an industrial center of 100,000 people on the western side of the main island of Honshu, burned to the ground that night after a raid by 179 US B-29 bombers dropping napalm.

More than 2,700 people were killed and 8,000 injured. But the atomic bombing of Hiroshima occurred just five days later, and Toyama’s tragic story was all but lost in the closing days of World War II.