Adrian Francis and Paper City: Preserving the Fading History of the Tokyo Firebombing

Why the victims of the tragic firebombing of Tokyo have yet to receive the recognition they deserve

“We who have witnessed the obscenity of war and experienced its horror and terrible consequences have an obligation to rise above our pain and suffering and turn the tragedy of our lives into a triumph.”
-Ron Kovic

The 1945 firebombing of Tokyo by U.S. warplanes is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. In one night, over 100,000 civilians were killed, a quarter of the city was destroyed, and a million people were left homeless.

Yet, considering the magnitude of this tragedy, the firebombing of Tokyo is rarely acknowledged — let alone memorialized — in the public consciousness, especially when compared to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was this incongruency that inspired award-winning filmmaker Adrian Francis to write and direct his first feature-length film, Paper City, which chronicles three air-raid survivors as they struggle to preserve a public record of their experiences before they pass away.

In this interview, Adrian shares his inspiration for the film, the unique challenges he faced as a filmmaker in Japan, and his…