This article was originally published in July 2022.

Review: Paper City, directed by Adrian Francis

In his first feature-length documentary, Adelaide-born director Adrian Francis offers a rigorous understanding of the American firebombing of Tokyo via survivors’ perspectives.

In a brutal attack nearing the end of the Second World War, on March 9 and 10, 1945, around 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed.

Many burned to death; others threw themselves into the nearby River Sumida, preferring death by drowning. Others took flight into bomb shelters where they were asphyxiated en masse.

The American Air Force’s chilling rubric for their unspeakable act was ‘Operation Meetinghouse’.

In Paper City’s account, the aftermath is principally conveyed by in-depth interviews with three Japanese survivors. At the time of the attack, Tsukiyama-san was 16, Kiyooka-san was 21 and Hoshino-san was just 14.

These testimonies are joined by one-off interviews with fellow octogenarians and nonagenarians who also experienced the firebombing.

Their memories collectively inform the bleak unfolding narrative, attesting to ruthless acts of terror.

We must remember

Solidly researched and confronting, Paper City was seven years in the making.

The film opens with archival footage of US fighter jets Tokyo-bound, transporting incendiary bombs, underscored by Don Baker’s 1942 song There’ll be a Little Smokio in Tokio.

Baker’s jauntily vocalised racist lyrics underpin the brutal dehumanisation of Japanese civilians through horrific footage.