North Korea called once again this month for Japan to acknowledge and make amends for the loss of Korean lives in devastating U.S. air raids during World War II, and despite Pyongyang’s propensity to hyperbole, there’s more than a grain of truth to its latest propaganda proclamation.

In a statement issued through the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 10, the Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families claimed Japanese authorities deliberately prevented Korean laborers from escaping during the Tokyo firebombing — a single night of destruction in 1945 that killed an estimated 100,000 people and left a million homeless.