TOKYO (Kyodo) — The U.S. bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 that claimed some 100,000 lives ran counter to the humanitarian principles of international law, the Japanese government said in a document released Tuesday.

At the day’s Cabinet meeting, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe endorsed the document prepared in response to a written question filed by Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party and a member of the House of Councillors or the upper house.

The document failed to directly criticize the United States, saying there are various opinions about the U.S. air raid of the Japanese capital and that it cannot be said the United States made the air raid in violation of international law at that time.

The document only noted that the then Japanese government had filed a protest with the U.S. government shortly after the March 1945 air raid.

More than 300 B-29 bombers dropped a large number of incendiary bombs above Tokyo on March 10, 1945, about five months ahead of Japan’s surrender in August that year, turning the Japanese capital to ruins. U.S. air raids of Tokyo also came in April and May that year.

Kyodo News, May 7, 2013