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30 Seconds Over Tokyo Lyrics
Flew off early in the haze of dawn
in a metal dragon locked in time,
skimming waves of an underground sea
in some kind of a dream world fantasy
Sun a hot circle on a canopy,
'25 a racing blot on a bright green sea
Ahead the dim blur of an alien land,
time to give ourselves to strange gods' hands
Dark flak spiders bursting in the sky,
reaching twisted claws on every side
No place to run,
no place to hide,
no turning back on a suicide ride
Toy city streets crawling through my sights,
sprouting clumps of mushrooms like a world surreal
This dream won't ever seem to end,
and time seems like it'll never begin
30 seconds,
and a one way ride
30 seconds,
and no place to hide
30 seconds over Tokyo
in a metal dragon locked in time,
skimming waves of an underground sea
in some kind of a dream world fantasy
'25 a racing blot on a bright green sea
Ahead the dim blur of an alien land,
time to give ourselves to strange gods' hands
reaching twisted claws on every side
No place to run,
no place to hide,
no turning back on a suicide ride
sprouting clumps of mushrooms like a world surreal
This dream won't ever seem to end,
and time seems like it'll never begin
30 seconds,
and a one way ride
30 seconds,
and no place to hide
30 seconds over Tokyo
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Seems fairly clear... This song presents the thoughts of a World War II airman who flew a bombing raid on Tokyo in the early stages of the war.
The metal dragon is an aircraft. The sun reflects off the plane's canopy. The plane is a B-25 bomber, thus the '25.
"Dark flak spiders" is a great description of the characteristic clouds of smoke produced by anti-aircraft fire.
Toy city streets is a reference to how the streets look from the air, and possibly also a bit of a pun on Tokyo.
Clumps of mushrooms are the bursts of the dropped bombs on the ground.
(Contrary to popular belief, mushroom clouds are not a distinct feature of nuclear explosions, but happen with conventional explosives as well, just on a smaller scale.)
In April 1942, a group of B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier they were not designed for, on a mission to bombard the Japanase industrial infrastructure in Tokyo. The mission was dangerous, and some of the men did not return. A book entitled "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" was written about this mission, and was later made into a movie.