TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Time seems frozen in this severely charred hospital room in Tokyo, left much as it was eight decades ago after U.S. B-29 bombers unleashed a firestorm that incinerated vast areas of the Japanese capital.

While workers bustle outside, the small, drafty room remains eerily still, strewn with pieces of scorched wood -- remnants of the incendiary bombing that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives in a single night in the final months of World War II.

Formerly the main ward of San-Ikukai Hospital, the four-story building in eastern Tokyo's Sumida Ward is being demolished due to aging.

However, parts of it, including the walls of the soot-encrusted room, have been carefully removed for preservation and exhibition at the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage in neighboring Koto Ward. Both Sumida and Koto were among the hardest-hit areas during the most devastating air raid of them all on March 10, 1945.

Last December, preparations were fully under way to replace the old ward building.

Ahead of dismantlement, at the top of a steep flight of stairs, a roughly 4-square-meter room with blackened walls and ceiling comes into view.

"There used to be a smell of soot," said Atsuhiro Toya, a San-Ikukai official heading the new hospital construction project. "The room has remained untouched probably because it was rarely used."

San-Ikukai Hospital was opened in 1918 as a counseling center for pregnant and infant-rearing women, and it began a maternity ward for the general public the following year.

With the main ward building completed in 1930, the hospital began actively offering parenting advice and conducting home visitations for childcare support.

During the firebombing campaign against Tokyo that began in November 1944, the surrounding area was reduced to ashes.

According to hospital records, after the war, the hospital repaired the damaged main building and resumed medical services. Until last summer, it had been used as "the west ward for outpatients."

The room, located directly above the elevator, had likely been used as a machine room, Toya said. Hospital staff had long referred to it as "the room of forgotten air raid soot."

When it was decided to demolish the old building, the hospital around June last year consulted the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, among others, about the room's potential to convey the horrors of war, particularly the firebombing of the capital.

Kenta Chiji, a curator of the center, visited the room and confirmed that the damage indeed resulted from an air raid.

"I was shocked to see that the room was left in virtually the same condition as when it was damaged," Chiji said

According to the center, the U.S. military had captured the Mariana Islands and converted them into a base to launch flight operations on the Japanese mainland near the end of the war.

The high-altitude bombing of Tokyo initially targeted mainly factories critical to Japan's war effort. But it was not long before the B-29 bombers shifted to indiscriminate attacks on densely populated urban areas.

In the so-called "Great Tokyo Air Raid" of March 10, 1945, large numbers of incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. The combination of wooden houses and strong winds caused the fires to spread rapidly.

At the time of that attack, 83-year-old Yumiko Yoshida had been living with her family in a house several hundred meters from the hospital. She was carried to safety by her aunt, but her parents and younger sister went missing, and their remains were never found.

"My parents and sister may have died while desperately attempting to flee...They must have suffered unbearable heat and pain in the fire," Yoshida said in a trembling voice.

"The room can play the role of teaching about the air raid to people today. I thank the hospital for preserving it," she said.

The situation in Tokyo at the time was heavily influenced by an "air defense law" that prohibited evacuations and required firefighters to stay behind and attempt to extinguish the fires, preventing many people from escaping.

The exact death toll is unknown. Some 270,000 homes were destroyed by fire in that single firebombing raid.

A special exhibit at the center, which began on Feb. 5, displaying the walls and burnt pieces of wood and other artifacts from the room provided by the hospital, will be held until April 4 to mark the 80th anniversary of the March 10 air raid.

(By Akane Murakoshi)