TOKYO — General Curtis E. LeMay, Air Force chief of staff, said Saturday he is proud of the growth of Japan, a country he tried to destroy 18 years ago.

The cigar-chewing ex-bomber pilot was answering a Japanese newsman's query about how he felt coming back to a country which his military duty required him to bomb nearly 20 years ago.

The four-star general arrived in Japan Friday after visiting Hawaii, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Korea. He was to end his two-week inspection trip Saturday night and fly non-stop to his Washington headquarters.

Answering the newsman at a press conference at the Sanno, LeMay said:

"We were enemies — against the government, not the people. My job vas to destroy that government and I did my best.

"We tried to warn people by dropping leaflets before bombing military and industrial targets and I regret that innocent casualties were unavoidable."

LeMay, who commanded a. B-29 bomber command in the Marianas Islands in 1945, said he came to Japan for the surrender ceremonies after the war.

"Then," he said, "I saw the terrible destruction that war had brought.

"Today, I see no reminders of war."

LeMay said that "perhaps the war could have been concluded without the use of the atomic bomb, but that's a subject that we can argue for many years."

"But," he said, "we got the fighting stopped quicker and that saved many, many lives."

LeMay praised the growth of the Japan Self-Defense Force into a "strong, professional force joined in partnership with the Free World to prevent further war."