TSUKUBA, Ibaraki -- Marking 80 years since the Tokyo air raids of World War II claimed approximately 100,000 lives, people gathered from the morning on March 10 at Tokyo Metropolitan Memorial Hall in the capital's Sumida Ward to mourn the victims. Lesser known, however, is how one of the roughly 300 American B-29 bombers involved crashed in the woods of Ibaraki Prefecture some 40 kilometers from Tokyo.

The plane is thought to have been struck by antiaircraft fire after dropping incendiary bombs on Tokyo. Nine of the 12 American airmen on board died instantly, but three survived and were rescued by local volunteer firefighters.

After the war, a group of locals decided that if they did not document these events, the tragic memories might be forgotten forever.

The B-29 went down at around 2 a.m. on March 10, 1945, in a forested area near the former village of Itabashi, now part of Tsukubamirai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"It was pitch dark, with not even a single streetlight, when suddenly the aircraft appeared, completely engulfed in flames, and crashed into the ground," recalled Akira Kusama, now 89, who watched the incident unfold with his then 8-year-old younger brother Hidesaburo outside their home in the neighboring town of Yatabe (now Tsukuba), roughly 3 km from the crash site.

The following morning, Kusama and about 10 of his friends walked for 30 to 40 minutes from home to reach the crash site, where smoke was still rising from the wreckage and fire smoldered in multiple places. On the way back home, the boys saw three surviving American crew members seated in the back of a truck. They had been blindfolded with towels and their hands were tied. What happened to those men thereafter long remained a mystery. However, for the brothers, the plane crash remained a significant local event for decades to come.

After graduating from university, Hidesaburo pursued an academic path, becoming a professor at Aichi Prefectural University specializing in international relations. Approaching retirement, he decided to research the wartime crash that had long intrigued him. "The people who know what happened are becoming elderly, and soon it might no longer be possible to hear their stories," he thought. With Kusama driving, Hidesaburo visited Sakae Tomiyama, reportedly one of those who had rescued the crew members.

At the time of the crash, Tomiyama was 34 and vice-chief of the local volunteer firefighting brigade. He crept silently toward the fiercely burning wreckage of the B-29, where the three surviving Americans had thrown their hands up, signaling surrender. "Don't shoot, don't beat them, we're going to save them," Tomiyama called out, warning the assembled locals. Some villagers wanted to harm the captured enemies, but Tomiyama used all his power to stop them, remarking, "If you want to hit someone, hit me."

Hidesaburo repeatedly visited Tomiyama and interviewed other locals involved in the rescue. Using his academic connections from a study-abroad stint in the U.S., he also successfully identified the names of all 12 airmen.

From his research, he learned that one of the three rescued airmen was executed, while the other two were incarcerated in a prisoner-of-war camp in Tokyo and died in an air raid in May 1945. In 1999, Hidesaburo published a series of findings in a book titled "B29 Tsuiraku -- Beihei o Sukutta Nihonjin" (B-29 crash: The Japanese who saved American soldiers). In it, he wrote, "I encountered some extremely painful truths, and it was hard to continue investigating it."

In 2001, following his retirement from the university, Hidesaburo, together with Tomiyama, Kusama and other local volunteers, established a stone "B-29 Crash Peace Monument" near the site where the plane went down. The group used personal funds, including Hidesaburo's retirement savings. They were motivated by the thought, "If nothing is done, the event will be forgotten."

Memorial services were held at the monument every year. Relatives of the American airmen visited, expressing gratitude and taking home soil from the site. "Their feelings toward their families are the same as how we Japanese feel," Kusama observed.

The air raids on the Japanese mainland intensified from November 1944 onward, affecting ordinary civilians. "Every day when I looked toward Tokyo, it was glowing red from flames. Families of people we knew also died. As a boy, I took it completely for granted that when I grew up, I would also go to war and defeat the enemy. Considering how it was in that era, what Tomiyama did was heroic," Kusama reflected. He continues to highly regard the locals involved in the rescue.

Tomiyama passed away at the age of 94 in 2004, and Hidesaburo died in 2014 at the age of 77. Currently, the monument is maintained by Kusama, who resides in the city of Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, and Tomiyama's third son Kazuo, 81, who still lives nearby.

The memorial service was last held about 15 years ago. While laying down a dedication of fruit and gazing at the monument, Kusama said, "It must have been so sad for them, dying in a foreign country. I hope that even in some small way we can ease their pain."

(Japanese original by Mayumi Nobuta, Tsukuba Local Bureau)