Curtis Lemay implemented the notion of low-level incendiary attacks on Japan, as Japanese industry was too distributed, almost cottage-level in some cases, to use strategic high-level bombing, which had proven to be quite problematic anyhow in Japan since the winds tended to disrupt the bombing patterns rather seriously.
He tested his idea on Chung-do in western China, one of Japan's major outposts. It worked well. TAB is right, something like 350,000 people were killed in a single incendiary raid on Tokyo, whereas the atomic bombs were like 75,000 - 115,000 direct casualties.