Eighty years ago today, on April 2, 1945 (February 20, 1945 lunar calendar), the US military began a large-scale bombing of the Japanese mainland. In the later stages of World War II, in order to finally destroy Japan's economic power and disintegrate Japan's military heart, the US stepped up its strategic bombing of the Japanese mainland. From April 2, 1945, the US military launched B-29 heavy bomber formations from the Mariana Islands by the 20th Air Force of the US Strategic Air Force to attack Japanese airfields and other targets in Tokyo, Yokohama and southern Kyushu. On the 5th, carrier aircraft of the 5th Fleet of the US Navy attacked Kyushu, Japan. By the end of the war, the United States had bombed Japan 81 times, reaching 14,569 sorties, dropping 140,000 tons of bombs, thus accelerating the collapse of Japanese militarism.