BLACK SNOW: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb

Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; 16 square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women and children were killed. All of which paved the way for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. Photos.