<Ul> <Li> Japanese surrender </Li> </Ul> <P> The Bombing of Tokyo (東京 大 空襲, Tōkyōdaikūshū) often refers to a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II . On the night of 9--10 March 1945, Operation Meetinghouse was conducted and is regarded as the single most destructive bombing raid in human history . 16 square miles (41 km) of central Tokyo were annihilated, over 1 million were made homeless with an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths . The Japanese later called this event Night of the Black Snow . </P> <P> The US first mounted a seaborne, small - scale air raid on Tokyo in April 1942 . Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long - range B - 29 Superfortress bomber entered service, first deployed from China and thereafter the Mariana Islands . B - 29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944, and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day of Japanese surrender . </P> <P> The first raid on Tokyo was the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942, when sixteen B - 25 Mitchells were launched from USS Hornet to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China . The raid was retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . The raid did little damage to Japan's war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States . Launched at longer range than planned when the task force encountered a Japanese picket boat, all of the attacking aircraft either crashed or ditched short of the airfields designated for landing . One aircraft landed in the neutral Soviet Union where the crew was interned, but then smuggled over the border into Iran on 11 May 1943 . Two crews were captured by the Japanese in occupied China . Three crewmen from these groups were later executed . </P>

When did the us bomb japan after pearl harbor