Volume 5 | Issue 5 | Number 0 | May 02, 2007
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus
A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of
Japanese Cities & the American Way of War from World War II to
Iraq
Mark Selden
A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing
noncombatant populations.
Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese
What is the logic and what have been the
Cities and the American Way of War from
consequences—for its victims, for
World War II to Iraq [*]
subsequent global patterns of warfare and
Mark Selden
for international law—of new technologies
of mass destruction and their application
World War II was a landmark in the
associated with the rise of air power and
development and deployment of
bombing technology in World War II and
technologies of mass destruction associated
after? Above all, how have these
with air power, notably the B-29 bomber,
experiences shaped the American way of
napalm and the atomic bomb. An
war over six decades in which the United
estimated 50 to 70 million people lay dead
States has been a major actor in important
in its wake. In a sharp reversal of the
wars? The issues have particular salience
pattern of World War I and of most earlier
in an epoch whose central international
wars, a substantial majority of the dead
discourse centers on terror and the War on
were noncombatants. [1] The air war,
Terror, one in which the terror inflicted on
which reached peak intensity with the area
noncombatants by the major powers is
bombing, including atomic bombing, of
frequently neglected.
major European and Japanese cities in its
Strategic Bombing and International Law
final year, had a devastating impact on
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Bombs had been dropped from the air as
prohibited “Aerial bombardment for the
early as 1849 on Venice (from balloons)
purpose of terrorizing the civilian
and 1911 in Libya (from planes).
population, of destroying or damaging
private property not of a military character,
or of injuring non-combatants.” It
specifically limited bombardment to
military
objectives,
prohibited
“indiscriminate bombardment of the
civilian population,” and held violators
liable to pay compensation. [3] Securing
consensus and enforcing limits, however,
proved extraordinarily elusive then and
since.
Throughout the long twentieth century,
A nineteenth century balloon
and particularly during and in the
Major European powers attempted to use
immediate aftermath of World War II, the
them in newly founded air forces during
inexorable advance of weapons technology
World War I. If the impact on the outcomes
went hand in hand with international
was marginal, the advance of air power
efforts to place limits on killing and
alerted all nations to the potential
barbarism
significance of airpower in future wars. [2]
particularly the killing of noncombatants in
A series of international conferences at the
strategic or indiscriminate bombing raids.
Hague beginning in 1899 set out principles
[4] This article considers the interplay of
for limiting air war and securing the
the development of powerful weapons and
protection of noncombatants from
delivery systems associated with bombing
bombing and other attacks. The 1923
and attempts to create international
Hague conference crafted a sixty-two
standards to curb the uses of bombing
article “Rules of Aerial Warfare,” which
against noncombatants, with particular
2
associated
with
war,
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reference to the United States.
whether it is an atom bomb rather than
tons of high explosives and incendiaries
The strategic and ethical implications of
that does the damage, not a jot of suffering
the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and
is added to its victims that the burned and
Nagasaki have generated a vast
buried, the dismembered and blinded, the
contentious literature, as have German and
dying and bereaved of Dresden or
Japanese war crimes and atrocities. By
Hamburg did not feel.” [6]
contrast, the US destruction of more than
sixty Japanese cities prior to Hiroshima has
If others, notably Germany, England and
been slighted both in the scholarly
Japan led the way in area bombing, the
literatures in English and Japanese and in
targeting for destruction of entire cities
popular consciousness in both Japan and
with conventional weapons emerged in
the US. It has been overshadowed by the
1944-45 as the centerpiece of US warfare. It
atomic bombing and by heroic narratives
was an approach that combined
of American conduct in the “Good War”,
technological
an outcome not unrelated to the emergence
minimization of US casualties in ways that
of the US as a superpower. [5] Arguably,
would become the hallmark of the
however, the central technological,
American way of war in campaigns from
strategic and ethical breakthroughs that
Korea and Indochina to the Gulf and Iraq
would leave their stamp on subsequent
Wars and, indeed define the trajectory of
wars occurred in area bombing of
major wars since the 1940s. The result
noncombatants prior to the atomic
would be the decimation of noncombatant
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A.C.
populations and extraordinary “kill ratios”
Grayling explains the different responses
favoring the US military. Yet for the US,
to firebombing and atomic bombing this
victory would prove extraordinary elusive.
way: “. . . the frissonof dread created by the
This is one important reason why, six
thought of what atomic weaponry can do
decades on, World War II retains its aura
affects those who contemplate it more than
for Americans as the “Good War”, and
those who actually suffer from it; for
why Americans have yet to effectively
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predominance
with
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come to grips with questions of ethics and
destruction—the Allies far
international law associated with their area
more successfully—there was
bombing of Germany and Japan.
no basis for criminal charges
The twentieth century was notable for the
and in fact no such charges
contradiction
between
against Germans or Japanese,
international
were brought . . . . Aerial
attempts to place limits on the
bombardment had been used
destructiveness of war and to hold nations
so extensively and ruthlessly
and their military leaders responsible for
on the Allied side as well as
the Axis side that neither at
violations of international laws of war
Nuremberg nor Tokyo was
(Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals and
successive
Geneva
the issue made a part of the
conventions,
trials.
particularly the 1949 convention protecting
civilians and POWs) and the systematic
From 1932 to the early years of World War
violation of those principles by the major
II the United States was an outspoken critic
powers. [7] For example, while the
of city bombing, notably but not
Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals clearly
exclusively German and Japanese
articulated the principle of universality, the
bombing. President Franklin Roosevelt
Tribunals, both held in cities that had been
appealed to the warring nations in 1939 on
obliterated by Allied bombing, famously
the first day of World War II “under no
shielded the victorious powers, above all
circumstances [to] undertake the
the US, from responsibility for war crimes
bombardment from the air of civilian
and crimes against humanity. Telford
populations or of unfortified cities.” [9]
Taylor, chief counsel for war crimes
Britain, France and Germany agreed to
prosecution at Nuremberg, made the point
limit bombing to strictly military
with specific reference to the bombing of
objectives, but in May 1940 German
cities a quarter century later: [8]
bombardment of Rotterdam exacted 40,000
Since both sides had played
civilian lives and forced the Dutch
the terrible game of urban
surrender. Up to this point, bombing of
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cities had been isolated, sporadic and for
commander Arthur Harris set out to
the most part confined to the axis powers.
concentrate “all available forces for the
Then in August 1940, after German
progressive, systematic destruction of the
bombers bombed London, Churchill
urban areas of the Reich, city block by city
ordered an attack on Berlin. The steady
block, factory by factory, until the enemy
escalation of bombing targeting cities and
became a nation of troglodytes, scratching
their noncombatant populations followed.
in the ruins.” [12] British strategists were
[10]
convinced that the destruction of cities by
night area bombing attacks would break
Strategic Bombing of Europe
the morale of German civilians while
After entering the war following Pearl
crippling war production. From 1942 with
Harbor, the US continued to claim the
the bombing of Lubeck followed by
moral high ground by abjuring civilian
Cologne, Hamburg and others, Harris
bombing. This stance was consistent with
pursued this strategy. The perfection of
the prevailing view in the Air Force high
onslaught from the air, or what should be
command that the most efficient bombing
understood as terror bombing, is better
strategies were those that pinpointed
understood, however, as a British-
destruction of enemy forces and
American joint venture.
installations, factories, and railroads, not
those designed to terrorize or kill
noncombatants. Nevertheless, the US
collaborated with indiscriminate bombing
at Casablanca in 1943, when a US-British
division of labor emerged in which the
British conducted the indiscriminate
bombing of cities and the US sought to
destroy military and industrial targets. [11]
In the final years of the war, Max Hastings
observed that Churchill and his bomber
Hamburg seen from 18,000 feet on July 28, 1943
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account: [14]
Throughout 1942-44, as the air war in
Europe swung ineluctably toward area
They burnt the whole damn
bombing, the US Air Force proclaimed its
town down . . . . Every day we
adherence to precision bombing. However,
walked into the city and dug into
this approach failed not only to force
basements and shelters to get the
surrender on either Germany or Japan, but
corpses out, as a sanitary
even to inflict significant damage on their
measure. When we went into
war-making capacity. With German
them, a typical shelter, an
artillery and interceptors taking a heavy
ordinary basement usually,
looked like a streetcar full of
toll on US planes, pressure mounted for a
people who’d simultaneously
strategic shift at a time of growing
had heart failure. Just people
sophistication, numbers and range of US
sitting there in their chairs, all
aircraft, and the invention of napalm and
dead. A fire storm is an amazing
the perfection of radar. Ironically, while
thing. It doesn’t occur in nature.
radar could have paved the way for a
It’s fed by the tornadoes that
reaffirmation of tactical bombing, now
occur in the midst of it and there
made feasible at night, in the context of the
isn’t a damned thing to breathe.
endgame of the war what transpired was
“Along with the Nazi extermination
the massive assault on cities and their
camps, the killing of Soviet and American
urban populations.
prisoners, and other enemy atrocities,”
On February 13-14, 1945 British bombers
Ronald Schaffer observes, “Dresden
with US planes following up destroyed
became one of the moral causes célèbres of
Dresden, a historic cultural center with no
World War II.” [15] Although far worse
significant military industry or bases. By
was in the offing in Japan, Dresden
conservative estimate, 35,000 people were
provoked the last significant public
incinerated in a single raid led by. [13] The
discussion of the bombing of women and
American writer Kurt Vonnegut, then a
children to take place during World War II,
young POW in Dresden, penned the classic
and the city became synonymous with
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terror bombing by the US and Britain.
impassioned discussion, but with the smell
Coming in the wake of both the Hamburg
of victory in the air, the government easily
and Munich bombings, the British
quieted the storm. The bombing continued.
government faced sharp questioning in
Strategic bombing had passed its sternest
parliament. [16] In the United States,
test in the realm of public reaction in
debate was largely provoked not by the
Britain and the United States.
destruction wrought by the raids, but by
an Associated Press report widely
published in the US and Britain stating
explicitly that “the Allied air commanders
have made the long-awaited decision to
adopt deliberate terror bombing of the
great German population centers as a
ruthless expedient to hasten Hitler’s
Dresden. Bodies found beneath wreckage
doom.” American officials quickly acted to
neutralize the report by pointing to the
Strategic Bombing of Japan
widely publicized great cathedral of
But it was in the Pacific theatre, and
Cologne, left standing after US bombing as
specifically in Japan, that the full brunt of
a symbol of American humanity, and by
air power would be felt. Between 1932 and
reiterating US adherence to principles
1945, Japan had bombed Shanghai,
restricting attacks to military targets.
Nanjing, Chongqing and other cities,
Secretary of War Henry Stimson stated that
“Our policy never has been to inflict terror
testing chemical weapons in Ningbo and
bombing on civilian populations,”
throughout Zhejiang province. [18] In the
claiming that Dresden, as a major
early months of 1945, the United States
transportation hub, was of military
shifted its attention to the Pacific as it
significance. [17] In fact, US public
gained the capacity to attack Japan from
discussion, not to speak of protest, was
newly captured bases in Tinian and Guam.
minimal; in Britain there was more
While the US continued to proclaim
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adherence to tactical bombing, tests of
important senses anticipating the events to
firebombing options against Japanese
follow.
homes throughout 1943-44 demonstrated
Curtis LeMay was appointed commander
that M-69 bombs were highly effective
of the 21 Bomber Command in the Pacific
st
against the densely packed wooden
on January 20, 1945. Capture of the
structures of Japanese cities. [19] In the
Marianas, including Guam, Tinian and
final six months of the war, the US threw
Saipan in summer 1944 had placed
the full weight of its air power into
Japanese cities within effective range of the
campaigns to burn whole Japanese cities to
B-29 “Superfortress” bombers, while
the ground and terrorize, incapacitate and
Japan’s depleted air and naval power left it
kill their largely defenseless residents in an
virtually defenseless against sustained air
effort to force surrender.
attack.
As Michael Sherry and Cary Karacas have
LeMay was the primary architect, a
pointed out for the US and Japan
strategic innovator, and most quotable
respectively, prophecy preceded practice in
spokesman for US policies of putting
the destruction of Japanese cities, and well
enemy cities, and later villages and forests,
before US planners undertook strategic
to the torch from Japan to Korea to
bombing. Thus Sherry observes that “Walt
Vietnam. In this, he was emblematic of the
Disney imagined an orgiastic destruction
American way of war that emerged from
of Japan by air in his 1943 animated feature
Victory Through Air Power(based on
World War II. Viewed from another angle,
Alexander P. De Seversky’s 1942 book),”
however, he was but a link in a chain of
while Karacas notes that the best-selling
command that had begun to conduct area
Japanese writer Unna Juzo, beginning in
bombing in Europe. That chain of
his early 1930s “air-defense novels”,
command extended upward through the
anticipated the destruction of Tokyo by
Joint Chiefs to the president who
bombing. [20] Both reached mass
authorized what would become the
audiences in the US and Japan, in
centerpiece of US warfare. [22]
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The US resumed bombing of Japan after a
and flying at altitudes averaging 7,000 feet
two-year lull following the 1942 Doolittle
to evade detection, the bombers, which had
raids in fall 1944. The goal of the bombing
been designed for high-altitude precision
assault that destroyed Japan’s major cities
attacks, carried two kinds of incendiaries:
in the period between May and August
M47s, 100-pound oil gel bombs, 182 per
1945, the US Strategic Bombing Survey
aircraft, each capable of starting a major
explained, was “either to bring
fire, followed by M69s, 6-pound gelled-
overwhelming pressure on her to
gasoline bombs, 1,520 per aircraft in
surrender, or to reduce her capability of
addition to a few high explosives to deter
resisting invasion. . . . [by destroying] the
firefighters. [25] The attack on an area that
the US Strategic Bombing Survey
basic economic and social fabric of the
estimated to be 84.7 percent residential
country.” [23] A proposal by the Chief of
succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of
Staff of the Twentieth Air Force to target
air force planners. Whipped by fierce
the imperial palace was rejected, but in the
winds, flames detonated by the bombs
wake of successive failures to eliminate
leaped across a fifteen square mile area of
such key strategic targets as Japan’s
Tokyo generating immense firestorms that
Nakajima Aircraft Factory west of Tokyo,
engulfed and killed scores of thousands of
the area bombing of Japanese cities was
residents.
approved. [24]
The full fury of firebombing and napalm
was unleashed on the night of March 9-10,
1945 when LeMay sent 334 B-29s low over
Tokyo from the Marianas. Their mission
was to reduce the city to rubble, kill its
citizens, and instill terror in the survivors,
with jellied gasoline and napalm that
would create a sea of flames. Stripped of
their guns to make more room for bombs,
Tokyo bombing along the Sumida River
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In contrast with Vonnegut’s “wax
In September 1923, during the
museum” description of Dresden victims,
great earthquake, I saw Tokyo
burning for 5 days. I saw in Honjo
accounts from inside the inferno that
a heap of 33,000 corpses of people
engulfed Tokyo chronicle scenes of utter
who burned or suffocated at the
carnage. We have come to measure the
beginning of the bombardment . . .
efficacy of bombing by throw weights and
After the first quake there were 20-
kill ratios, eliding the perspectives of their
odd centers of fire, enough to
victims. But what of those who felt the
destroy the capital. How could the
wrath of the bombs?
conflagration be stopped when
incendiary bombs in the dozens of
Police cameraman Ishikawa Koyo
thousands now dropped over the
described the streets of Tokyo as “rivers of
four corners of the district and
fire . . . flaming pieces of furniture
with Japanese houses which are
exploding in the heat, while the people
only match boxes? . . . Where could
themselves blazed like ‘matchsticks’ as
one fly? The fire was everywhere.
their wood and paper homes exploded in
Nature reinforced man's handiwork in the
flames. Under the wind and the gigantic
form of akakaze
, the red wind that swept
breath of the fire, immense incandescent
with hurricane force across the Tokyo plain
vortices rose in a number of places,
and propelled firestorms across the city
swirling, flattening, sucking whole blocks
with terrifying speed and intensity. The
of houses into their maelstrom of fire.”
wind drove temperatures up to eighteen
Father Flaujac, a French cleric, compared
hundred degrees Fahrenheit, creating
the firebombing to the Tokyo earthquake
superheated vapors that advanced ahead
twenty-two years earlier, an event whose
of the flames, killing or incapacitating their
massive destruction, another form of
victims. "The mechanisms of death were so
prophecy, had alerted both Japanese
multiple and simultaneous—oxygen
science fiction writers and some of the
deficiency
original planners of the Tokyo holocaust:
poisoning, radiant heat and direct flames,
[26]
debris and the trampling feet of
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and
carbon
monoxide
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stampeding crowds—that causes of death
from carbon monoxide asphyxiation, from
were later hard to ascertain . . .” [27]
being trampled beneath the feet of
stampeding crowds, and from drowning.
The Strategic Bombing Survey, whose
The largest number of victims were the
formation a few months earlier provided
most vulnerable: women, children and the
an important signal of Roosevelt’s support
elderly.”
for strategic bombing, provided a technical
description of the firestorm and its effects
How many people died on the night of
on Tokyo:
March 9-10 in what flight commander Gen.
Thomas Power termed “the greatest single
The chief characteristic of the
disaster incurred by any enemy in military
conflagration . . . was the presence of
a fire front, an extended wall of fire
history?” The Strategic Bombing Survey
moving to leeward, preceded by a
estimated that 87,793 people died in the
mass of pre-heated, turbid, burning
raid, 40,918 were injured, and 1,008,005
vapors . . . . The 28-mile-per-hour
people lost their homes. Robert Rhodes,
wind, measured a mile from the fire,
estimating the dead at more than 100,000
increased to an estimated 55 miles at
men, women and children, suggested that
the perimeter, and probably more
probably a million more were injured and
within. An extended fire swept over
another million were left homeless. The
15 square miles in 6 hours . . . . The
Tokyo Fire Department estimated 97,000
area of the fire was nearly 100 percent
killed and 125,000 wounded. The Tokyo
burned; no structure or its contents
Police offered a figure of 124,711 killed and
escaped damage.
wounded and 286,358 building and homes
The survey concluded—plausibly, but only
destroyed. The figure of roughly 100,000
for events prior to August 6, 1945—that
deaths, provided by Japanese and
“probably more persons lost their lives by American authorities, both of whom may
fire at Tokyo in a 6-hour period than at any have had reasons of their own for
time in the history of man. People died minimizing the death toll, seems to me
from extreme heat, from oxygen deficiency, arguably low in light of population
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density, wind conditions, and survivors’
Subsequent raids brought the devastated
accounts. [28] With an average of 103,000
area of Tokyo to more than 56 square
inhabitants per square mile and peak levels
miles, provoking the flight of millions of
as high as 135,000 per square mile, the
refugees.
highest density of any industrial city in the
world, and with firefighting measures
ludicrously inadequate to the task, 15.8
square miles of Tokyo were destroyed on a
night when fierce winds whipped the
flames and walls of fire blocked tens of
Curtis LeMay in the 1940s
thousands fleeing for their lives. An
No previous or subsequent conventional
estimated 1.5 million people lived in the
bombing raid ever came close to
burned out areas. Given a near total
generating the toll in death and destruction
inability to fight fires of the magnitude
of the great Tokyo raid of March 9-10. The
produced by the bombs, it is possible to
airborne assault on Tokyo and other
imagine that casualties may have been
Japanese cities ground on relentlessly.
several times higher than the figures
According to Japanese police statistics, the
presented on both sides of the conflict. The
65 raids on Tokyo between December 6,
single effective Japanese government
1944 and August 13, 1945 resulted in
measure taken to reduce the slaughter of
137,582 casualties, 787,145 homes and
US bombing was the 1944 evacuation to
buildings destroyed, and 2,625,279 people
the countryside of 400,000 children from
displaced. [30] Following the Tokyo raid of
major cities, 225, 000 of them from Tokyo.
March 9-10, the firebombing was extended
[29]
nationwide. In the ten-day period
Following the attack, LeMay, never one to
beginning on March 9, 9,373 tons of bombs
mince words, said that he wanted Tokyo
destroyed 31 square miles of Tokyo,
“burned down—wiped right off the map”
Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Overall,
to “shorten the war.” Tokyo did burn.
bombing strikes destroyed 40 percent of
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the 66 Japanese cities targeted, with total
Japanese cities, deliberately sparing Kyoto,
tonnage dropped on Japan increasing from
the ancient imperial capital, and four
13,800 tons in March to 42,700 tons in July.
others. The extent of the destruction was
[31] If the bombing of Dresden produced a
impressive ranging from 50 to 60% of the
ripple of public debate in Europe, no
urban area destroyed in cities including
discernible wave of revulsion, not to speak
Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo, to 60 to 88%
of protest, took place in the US or Europe
in seventeen cities, to 98.6% in the case of
in the wake of the far greater destruction of
Toyama. [33] In the end, the Atomic Bomb
Japanese cities and the slaughter of civilian
Selection Committee chose Hiroshima,
populations on a scale that had no parallel
Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki as the
in the history of bombing.
pristine targets to display the awesome
power of the atomic bomb to Japan and the
In July, US planes blanketed the few
world in the event that would both bring
remaining Japanese cities that had been
to a spectacular end the costliest war in
spared firebombing with an “Appeal to the
human history and send a powerful
People.” “As you know,” it read, “America
message to the Soviet Union.
which stands for humanity, does not wish
to injure the innocent people, so you had
Michael Sherry has compellingly described
better evacuate these cities.” Half the
the triumph of technological fanaticism as
leafleted cities were firebombed within
the hallmark of the air war that
days of the warning. US planes ruled the
quintessentially shaped the American way
skies. Overall, by one calculation, the US
of fighting and heavily stamped
firebombing campaign destroyed 180
remembrances of the War ever after:
square miles of 67 cities, killed more than
The shared mentality of the
300,000 people and injured an additional
fanatics of air war was their
400,000, figures that exclude the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [32]
dedication to assembling and
Between January and July 1945, the US
destruction, and . . . doing so
perfecting their methods of
firebombed and destroyed all but five
overshadowed the original
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purposes justifying destruction
that spanned the long twentieth century. In
. . . .The lack of a proclaimed
other words, technological fanaticism is
intent to destroy, the sense of
inseparable from American nationalism
being driven by the twin
and conceptions of a benevolent American-
demands of bureaucracy and
technology,
distinguished
America’s
technological
dominated global order. In contrast to
British, Japanese and other nationalisms
associated with expansive powers, the
fanaticism from its enemies’
American approach to the postwar order
ideological fanaticism.
lay not in a vision centered on the
Technological fanaticism served to conceal
acquisition of colonies but in a global
the larger purposes of power both from
network of military bases and naval and
military planners and the public. This
air power that only in recent years has
suggestive formulation, however, conceals
begun to be understood as the American
core ideological patterns at the heart of
way of empire. [34]
American strategic thought. Wartime
Throughout the spring and summer of
technological fanaticism in my view is best
1945 the US air war in Japan reached an
understood as a means of operationalizing
intensity that is still perhaps unrivaled in
national goals. Taken for granted were the
the magnitude of human slaughter. [35]
legitimacy and benevolence of American
That moment was a product of the
global power and a perception of the
combination
Japanese as both uniquely brutal and
of
technological
breakthroughs, American nationalism, and
inherently inferior. Technology was
the erosion of moral and political scruples
harnessed to the driving force of American
pertaining to the killing of civilians,
nationalism, which repeatedly came to the
perhaps intensified by the racism that
fore in times of war, and was fashioned
crystallized in the Pacific theatre. [36]
under wartime conditions, beginning with
the conquest of the Philippines in 1898 and
The targeting for destruction of entire
running through successive wars and
populations, whether indigenous peoples,
police actions in Latin America and Asia
religious infidels, or others deemed inferior
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or evil, may be as old as human history,
been virtually alone in fighting wars and
but the forms it takes are as new as the
police actions notable for their reliance on
latest technologies of destruction and
airpower in general and the deliberate
strategic innovation, of which air power,
targeting for destruction of civilians, and
firebombing and nuclear weapons are
the infrastructure that makes possible their
particularly notable. [37] The most
survival, in particular. Certainly in this
important way in which World War II
epoch no others have bombed on a scale
shaped the moral and technological tenor
approaching that of the US. The US would
of mass destruction was the erosion in the
conceal the deliberate annihilation of
course of war of the stigma associated with
noncombatants with the figleaf that Sahr
the systematic targeting of civilian
Conway-Lanz describes as the myth of
populations from the air, and elimination
collateral damage, that is the claim,
of the constraints, which for some years
however systematic the bombing, that the
had restrained certain air powers from area
intent was elimination of military targets,
bombing. What was new was both the
not the slaughter of noncombatants.
scale of killing made possible by the new
Concerted efforts to protect civilians from
technologies and the routinization of mass
the ravages of war reached a peak in the
killing or state terrorism. If area bombing
aftermath of World War II in the founding
remained controversial throughout much
of the United Nations, German and
of World War II, something to be concealed
Japanese War Crimes Tribunals, and the
or denied by its practitioners, by the end of
the conflagration it would become the
1949 Geneva Accords and its 1977 Protocol.
acknowledged centerpiece of war making,
The Nuremberg Indictment defined
emblematic above all of the American way
“crimes against humanity” as “murder,
of war even as the nature of the targets and
extermination, enslavement, deportation,
the weapons were transformed by new
and other inhumane acts committed
technologies and confronted new forms of
against any civilian population, before or
resistance. Indeed, for six decades the US
during the war,” language that resonated
(and those fighting under its umbrella) has
powerfully with the area bombing
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campaigns not only of Japan and Germany
the eyes of the victim, nor does the act of
but of Britain and the US. [38] These efforts
destruction have the physical immediacy
appear to have done little to stay the hand
for the perpetrator of decapitation by
of power. Indeed, while the atomic bomb
sword or even shooting with a machine
would leave a deep imprint on the
gun. This may be particularly important
collective consciousness of the twentieth
when the principal targets are women,
century, memory of the area bombings and
children and the elderly.
firebombing of major cities soon
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
disappeared from the consciousness of all
Nagasaki was the pinnacle of the process
but the victims.
of annihilation of civilian populations in
the pursuit of military victory. While
President Truman claimed that the
Hiroshima bomb targeted a naval base, the
decision to detonate the bomb in the skies
above Hiroshima and Nagasaki was taken
to maximize the killing of their inhabitants
and the destruction of the built
environment. It was also calculated to
Prime Minister Tojo Hideki at Tokyo Trial
demonstrate to the Japanese government
and people, to the authorities in the Soviet
The ability to destroy an entire city and
Union and other potential challengers of
annihilate its population in a single
American preeminence, and to the people
bombing campaign was not only far more
“efficient” and less costly for the attacker
of the world, the omnipotence of American
than previous methods of warfare, it also
power and the certain destruction that
sanitized slaughter. Air power distanced
would be visited on any who defied the
executioners from victims, transforming
United States. The debate over the use of
the visual and tactile experience of killing.
the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and
The bombardier never looks squarely into
Nagasaki has reverberated throughout the
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postwar era, centered on the killing of
destruction. [40] Indiscriminate bombing of
noncombatants and on its significance in
noncombatants has been responsible for
ending World War II and shaping the
the most massive destruction and loss of
subsequent US-Soviet conflict that defined
life throughout this epoch, even while the
postwar geopolitics. [39] In a sense,
US staunchly maintains that it does not
however, the very focus of that debate on
deliberately kill civilians, thereby hewing
the atomic bomb, and later on the
to Conway-Lanz’s collateral damage
development of the hydrogen bomb, may
principle to protect it not only from
have contributed to the silencing of the no
political criticism in the US, but also from
less pressing issues associated with the
international criticisms.
killing of noncombatants with ever more
World War II remains unrivaled in the
powerful ‘conventional’ weapons.
annals of war by important measures such
The US did not drop atomic bombs again
as the number of people killed and the
in the six decades since the end of World
scale of mass destruction. In that war, it
War II, although it repeatedly threatened
was not the bombing of cities but Nazi
their use in Korea, in Vietnam and
genocide against Jews, Catholics, Romany,
elsewhere. But it incorporated annihilation
homosexuals and other Germans as well as
of noncombatants in the bombing
Poles, the German invasion of the Soviet
programs that have been integral to the
Union, and Japanese slaughter of Asian
successive “conventional wars” that it has
noncombatants that exacted the heaviest
waged subsequently. With area bombing at
price in human lives. Each of these
the core of its strategic agenda, US attacks
examples had its unique character and
on cities and noncombatants would run the
historical and ideological origins. All
gamut from firebombing, napalming,
rested on dehumanizing assumptions
cluster bombing, and atomic bombing to
concerning the “other” and produced
the use of chemical defoliants and depleted
large-scale slaughter of noncombatant
uranium weapons and bunker buster
populations. Japan’s China war produced
bombs in an ever expanding circle of
notable cases of atrocities that, then and
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later, captured world attention. They
included the Nanjing Massacre, the
bombings of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankou,
Chongqing and other cities, the
enslavement of the comfort women, and
Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi's Nanjing Massacre
the vivisection experiments and biowarfare
bombs of Unit 731. Less noted then and
Mural
since were the systematic barbarities
The war dead in Europe alone in World
perpetrated against resistant villagers,
War II, including the Soviet Union, have
though this produced the largest number
been estimated in the range of 30 to 40
of the estimated ten to thirty million
million, fifty percent more than the toll in
Chinese who lost their lives in the war, a
World War I. To this we must add 25 to 35
million Asian victims in the fifteen-year
number that far surpasses the half million
resistance war in China (1931-45),
or more Japanese noncombatants who died
approximately three million Japanese, and
at the hands of US bombing, and may have
millions more in Southeast Asia. Among
exceeded Soviet losses to Nazi invasion
the important instances of the killing of
conventionally estimated at 20 million
noncombatants in World War II, the US
lives. [41] In that and subsequent wars it
destruction of Japanese cities is perhaps
would be the signature barbarities such as
least known and least controversial. In
the Nanjing Massacre, the Bataan Death
contrast to the fierce and continuing debate
March, and the massacres at Nogunri and
over the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
My Lai rather than the quotidian events
Nagasaki, the Nazi extermination of Jews
that defined the systematic daily and
and others, and the far smaller-scale allied
hourly killing, which have attracted
bombings of Dresden and Hamburg, and
sustained attention, sparked bitter
such Japanese atrocities as the Nanjing
controversy, and shaped historical
Massacre and the vivisection experiments
memory.
of Unit 731, the US firebombing of
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Japanese cities has virtually disappeared
maximize its technological and economic
from international and even American and
strength and minimize its own casualties,
Japanese historical memory of the war.
would replicate to even greater numerical
advantage in subsequent wars.
In World War I, ninety percent of the
fatalities directly attributable to the war
World War II remains indelibly engraved
were military, nearly all of them
in American memory as the “Good War”
Europeans and Americans. Most estimates
and in important respects it was. In
confronting the war machines of Nazi
place World War II casualties in Europe in
Germany and Imperial Japan, the United
the range of 50-60 percent noncombatants.
States played a large role in defeating
In the case of Asia, when war-induced
aggressors and opening the way for a wave
famine casualties are included, the
of decolonization that swept the globe in
noncombatant death toll was almost
subsequent decades. It was also a war that
certainly substantially higher in both
catapulted the United States to global
absolute and percentage terms. [42] The
supremacy
United States, its homeland untouched by
and
established
the
institutional foundations for the global
war, suffered approximately 100,000
projection of American power in a network
deaths in the entire Asian theater, a figure
of military bases and unrivaled
lower than that for the single Tokyo air
technological supremacy.
raid of March 10, 1945, and well below the
death toll at Hiroshima or in the Battle of
For most Americans, in retrospect World
Okinawa. Japan's three million war dead,
War II seemed a “Good War” in another
while thirty times the number of US dead,
sense: the US entered and exited the war
was still only a small fraction of the toll
buoyed by absolute moral certainty borne
suffered by the Chinese who resisted the
of a mission to punish aggression in the
Japanese military juggernaut. These are
form of a genocidal Nazi fascism and
numbers of relative casualties that the US,
Japanese imperialism run amok. Moreover,
by fighting no war on its own soil since the
Americans remember the generosity of US
Civil War, and by adapting strategies that
aid not only to war torn allies, but to
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rebuild the societies of former adversaries,
294 were executed. At the Tokyo Trials, 28
Germany and Japan. Such an interpretation
were indicted and seven were sentenced to
masks the extent to which Americans
death. At subsequent A and B class trials
shared with their adversaries an abiding
conducted by the allied powers between
nationalism and expansionist urges. In
1945 and 1951, 5,700 Japanese, Koreans and
contrast to earlier territorial empires, this
Taiwanese were indicted. 984 were initially
took the form of new regional and global
sentenced to death (the sentences of 50 of
structures facilitating the exercise of
these were commuted); 475 received life
sentences, and 2,944 received limited
American power. The victory, which
prison terms. The result of military defeat,
propelled the US to a hegemonic position
occupation, and war crimes tribunals has
which carried authority to condemn and
been protracted and profound reflection
punish war crimes committed by defeated
and self-criticism by significant groups
nations, remains a major obstacle to a
within both countries. In the case of
thoroughgoing reassessment of the
Germany—but not yet Japan—there has
wartime conduct of the US in general, and
been meaningful official recognition of the
issues of mass destruction carried out by
criminal conduct of genocidal and other
its forces in particular.
barbaric policies as well as appropriate
World War II, building on and extending
restitution to victims in the form of public
atavistic impulses deeply rooted in earlier
apology
civilizations and combining them with
and
substantial
official
reparations. For its part, the Japanese state
more destructive technologies, produced
continues to reject official reparations
new forms of human depravity. German
claims to such war victims as Korean and
and Japanese crimes have long been
Chinese forced laborers and the military
subjected to international criticism from
comfort women (sexual slaves), while the
the war crimes tribunals of the 1940s to the
war remains a fiercely contested
present. [43] At Nuremberg and
intellectual-political issue as demonstrated
subsequent trials, more than 1,800
by the decades long conflicts over textbook
Germans were convicted of war crimes and
treatments of colonialism and war, the
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Yasukuni shrine (the symbol of emperor-
enshrined at Nuremberg and violated in
centered nationalism, empire and war), the
practice by the US and others beginning
military comfort women, and the Nanjing
with the 1946 trials, which declared US
Massacre controversies. [44]
immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
In contrast to these responses to the war in
In his opening address to the tribunal,
Germany and Japan, and even to the
Chief Prosecutor for the United States,
ongoing debate in the US about the uses of
Justice Robert Jackson, Chief of Counsel for
the United States, spoke eloquently, and
the atomic bomb, there has been virtually
memorably, on the principle of
no awareness of, not to speak of critical
universality. “If certain acts of violation of
reflection on, the US bombing of Japanese
treaties are crimes,” he said, “they are
civilians in the months prior to Hiroshima.
crimes whether the United States does
The systematic bombing of Japanese
them or whether Germany does them, and
noncombatants in the course of the
we are not prepared to lay down a rule of
destruction of Japanese cities must be
criminal conduct against others which we
added to a list of the horrific legacies of the
would not be willing to have invoked
war that includes Nazi genocide and a host
against us....We must never forget that the
of Japanese war crimes against Asian
record on which we judge these
peoples. Only by engaging the issues, and
defendants is the record on which history
above all the impact of this approach to the
will judge us tomorrow. To pass these
massive killing of noncombatants that has
defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to
been central to all subsequent US wars, can
our own lips as well.” [45]
Americans begin to approach the
Nuremberg ideal that holds victors as well
Every US president from Roosevelt to
as vanquished to the same standards with
George W. Bush has endorsed in practicean
respect to crimes against humanity, or the
approach to warfare that targets entire
standard of the 1949 Geneva Accord which
populations for annihilation, one that
requires the protection of civilians in time
eliminates all vestiges of distinction
of war. This is the principle of universality
between combatant and noncombatant,
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with deadly consequences. The awesome
Uses
power of the atomic bomb has obscured
Noncombatants
the fact that this strategy came of age in the
of
Airpower
to
Target
The centrality of the wholesale killing of
firebombing of Tokyo and became the
noncombatants through the myriad uses of
centerpiece of US war making from that
air power runs like a red line from the
time forward.
bombings of 1944-45 through the Korean
That poisoned chalice was put to American
and Indochinese wars to the Gulf,
lips in the 1945 trials and all the more so in
Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In the course of
subsequent wars. Sahr Conway-Lanz
six decades since the firebombing and
rightly points to the deep divisions among
atomic bombing of Japan, while important
Americans seeking to strike an appropriate
continuities are observable, such as the
balance between combat and atrocity, and
firebombing and napalming of cities, new,
between war and genocide. [46] But with
more powerful and versatile aircraft and
absolute American preponderance of
weapons would be deployed in the course
technological power and the threat of
of successive American wars fought
enemies from Communists to terrorists
predominantly in Asia.
magnified by government and the media,
General Curtis LeMay, the primary
in practice, there were few restraints on the
architect of the firebombing and atomic
annihilation of noncombatants in the
bombing strategy applied to Japan in 1945
succession of US wars that have exacted
played a comparable role in Korea and
such a heavy toll in lives. American self-
Vietnam. Never one to pull punches, or to
conceptions of benevolence and justice
minimize the claimed impact of bombing,
have remained fixed not on the reality of
LeMay recalled of Korea:
the killing of noncombatants but on the
We slipped a note kind of under
combination of American intentions in
the door into the Pentagon and
combat and generosity in charting postwar
recovery in all wars since 1945.
said, “Look, let us go up
Epilogue: Korea , Vietnam , Iraq and the
the biggest towns in North Korea
there…and burn down five of
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– and they’re not very big – and
directed against rural areas of Korea and
that ought to stop it.” Well, the
Vietnam, leading the United States to breach
another of international principles that had
answer to that was four or five
sought to curtail indiscriminate attacks on
screams – “You’ll kill a lot of
noncombatants. Beginning in Korea, US bombing
non-combatants,” and “It’s too
was extended from cities to the countryside with
horrible.” Yet over a period three
devastating effects. In what Bruce Cumings has
years or so…we burned down
called the “final act of this barbaric air war,” in
every town in North Korea and
spring 1953 North Korea’s main irrigation dams
South Korea, too… Now, over a
were destroyed shortly after the rice had been
period of three years this is
transplanted. [49]
palatable, but to kill a few people
to stop this from happening – a
Here we consider one particularly
lot of people can’t stomach it.”
important element of American bombing
[47]
of Vietnam. Franklin Roosevelt, in 1943
issued a statement that long stood as the
In the course of three years, US/UN forces
clearest expression of US policy on the use
in Korea flew 1,040,708 sorties and
of chemical and biological weapons. In
dropped 386,037 tons of bombs and 32,357
response to reports of Axis plans to use
tons of napalm. Counting all types of air
poison gases, Roosevelt warned that “use
borne ordnance, including rockets and
of such weapons has been outlawed by the
machine-gun ammunition, the total
general opinion of civilized mankind. This
tonnage comes to 698,000 tons. Marilyn
country has not used them, and I hope that
Young estimates the death toll in Korea,
we never will be compelled to use them. I
most of it noncombatants, at two to four
state categorically that we shall under no
million, and in the South alone, more than
circumstances resort to the use of such
five million people had been displaced,
weapons unless they are first used by our
according to UN estimates. [48]
enemies.” [50] This principle, incorporated
in US Army Field Manual 27-10, Law of
One striking feature of these wars has been the
extension of bombing from a predominantly
Land Warfare,issued in 1954, affirmed the
urban phenomenon to the uses of airpower
principle of no first use of gas warfare and
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bacteriological warfare. By 1956, that
Nam told Japanese investigators that a
provision had disappeared, replaced by the
three-day attack near Da Nang from
assertion that the US was party to no treaty
February 25 to 27, 1966 had poisoned both
in force “that prohibits or restricts the use
livestock and people, some of whom died.
in warfare of toxic or nontoxic gases, or
“Pregnant women gave birth to still-born
smoke or incendiary materials or of
or premature children. Most of the affected
bacteriological warfare.” US CBW research
cattle died from serious diarrhea, and river
and procurement efforts, that began in the
fish floated on the surface of the water
early 1950s and culminated in the Kennedy
belly up, soon after the chemicals were
administration in the early 1960s, resulted
spread.” [53]
in the use of chemical and biological
Before turning to Iraq, it is worth recalling
weapons both against Vietnamese forces
President Nixon’s comments on the
and nature, specifically extending from the
bombing of Cambodia as preserved in the
destruction of forest cover to the
Kissinger tapes released in May 2004. In a
destruction of crops. As Seymour Hersh
burst of anger on Dec. 9, 1970, when Nixon
documents, the US CBW program in
railed over what he saw as the Air Force’s
Vietnam “gradually escalated from the use
lackluster
of leaf-killing defoliants to rice-killing
bombing
campaign
in
Cambodia. Kissinger responded: “The Air
herbicides and nausea-producing gases.”
Force is designed to fight an air battle
[51] How widespread were US gas attacks
against the Soviet Union. They are not
in Vietnam? A 1967 Japanese study of US
anticrop and defoliation attacks prepared
designed for this war.” Nixon then
by the head of the Agronomy Section of the
exploded: “I want them to hit everything. I
Japan Science Council concluded that more
want them to use the big planes, the small
than 3.8 million acres of arable land in
planes, everything they can that will help
South Vietnam was ruined and more than
out there, and let’s start giving them a little
1,000 peasants and 13,000 livestock were
shock.” Here was an early warning signal
killed. [52] In the face of US military claims
of the “Shock and Awe” strategy of a
that the gases were benign, Dr. Pham Duc
generation later. Kissinger relayed the
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order: “A massive bombing campaign in
injured, and the continued dangers of
Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything
unexploded ordinance. As Taylor Owen
that moves.” [54] In the course of the
and Ben Kiernan argue persuasively,
Vietnam War the US embraced chemical
“Civilian casualties in Cambodia drove an
and biological weapons of mass
enraged populace into the arms of an
destruction as integral parts of its arsenal.
insurgency that had enjoyed relatively
little support until the bombing began,
Another story of indiscriminate bombing
setting in motion the expansion of the
in Cambodia came to light thirty six years
Vietnam War deeper into Cambodia, a
after the events. The new evidence makes
coup d’état in 1970, the rapid rise of the
clear that Cambodia was bombed far more
Khmer Rouge, and ultimately the
heavily than was previously known, and
Cambodian genocide.” [55]
that, unbeknownst to the American public
or the world, it began not with Nixon in
It is notable, by contrast to the preceding
1970 but on October 4, 1965. During a fall
six decades of American warfare, that the
2000 visit to Vietnam, President Clinton
centrality of the image of airpower and the
made available detailed Air Force records
bomb as the summa of destructive might,
to help the Vietnamese, Cambodian and
has shifted dramatically in the Iraq War:
Laotian governments to uncover the
Americans remember World War II above
remains of two thousand missing
all as the crowning achievement of air
American soldiers. The records provided
power, symbolized and mythologized by
specific data on place and scale of
the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
bombing. The incomplete data reveal that
Nagasaki; they remember the era of US-
October 4, 1965, to August 15, 1973, the
Soviet confrontation above all as one of
United States dropped far more ordnance
nuclear standoff; and they remember both
on Cambodia than was previously
Korea and Vietnam in no small part
believed: 2,756,941 tons’ worth, dropped in
through
230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites. The
predominance in the air, as in the bombing
consequences go far beyond the dead, the
of Hanoi and North Vietnam as well as the
25
images
of
American
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defoliation using Agent Orange, air power.
“did not seem to last long or run deep.”
But, as Michael Sherry observes, air power
[56]
has largely receded from consciousness in
In thinking about the Iraq War and
the wake of the collapse of the Soviet
contemporary American consciousness, I
Union and the shift in target from the other
would like to suggest an alternative
superpower to faceless terrorists associated
scenario. First, I believe that 9/11 and the
with Al-Quaida and Islamic militants.
Twin Towers in flames remains the iconic
Sherry concludes that a sea change has
image of our times in American
occurred, a shift from prophecy to memory
consciousness. It is the central mobilizing
in which air power declines in American
consciousness:
“Bombers
image for US war making and the primal
attacking
impulse that drives American fears of the
Baghdad, B-52s over Belgrade, Russian
future. Second, as Seymour Hersh and
planes hitting Grozny, rulers bombing
others have observed, the US military,
their own peoples--the scale of those
while continuing to pursue massive
operations (however devastating for the
bombing of Iraqi neighborhoods, above all
locals) and the fact that they involved such
in the destruction of Falluja but even in
unequal forces did not stir Americans’
Baghdad, has chosen to throw a cloak of
apocalyptic fears and fantasies.” Where air
silence over the air war. The major media
power did appear in American
have faithfully honored official dicta in this
consciousness, he finds, “American
as in so many other ways. [57] Finally,
bombing came across on U.S. television
screens more as a fascinating video game
among
than as a devastating onslaught.” More
administration’s major initiatives have
importantly, he concludes, because of the
been the efforts to seize control of space as
attack on New York’s Twin Towers and the
the centerpiece of global domination in an
Pentagon on 9/11, and because of the
era that is slated to replace the bomber as
horrific images that it conjured, in contrast
the primary delivery weapon of mass
to the heroic images of air power in World
destruction. [58] Air power remains among
War II, the prophecy associated with it
the major causes of death, destruction,
26
the
George
W.
Bush
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Falluja under US bombardment, 2004
dislocation and division in contemporary
Iraq in a war that had taken approximately
We have shown the decisive impact of the
655,000 lives by the summer of 2006 in the
final year of World War II in setting in
most authoritative study to date, that of
place the preeminence of strategic bombing
The Lancet) and created more than two
as quintessential to the US way of war, one
million refugees abroad and an equal
that would characterize subsequent major
number displaced internally (one in seven
wars that have wreaked yet greater
Iraqis are displaced). Largely unreported
devastation on noncombatant populations.
in the US mainstream press, and invisible
Yet for all the power unleashed by US
in US television news and reportage, this is
bombers, for all the millions of victims, in
the central reality that confronts the Iraq
the six decades since 1945, victory against
people. US strategy has produced the
successive, predominantly Asian foes, has
explosive social divisions that promise to
proved extraordinary elusive for the
lead to permanent warfare in Iraq and
United States.
throughout the region. Despite the
This article was written forJapan Focus.
unchallenged air supremacy that the US
Posted onMay 2, 2007.
has wielded in Iraq since 1991 and
especially since 2003, there is no end in
Mark Selden is a research associate at the East
sight to US warfare and civil war in Iraq
Asia Program, Cornell University, and a
coordinator of Japan Focus. His recent books
and throughout the region. [59]
include War and State Terrorism. The United
States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long
Twentieth Century.
Notes
* The author thanks Noam Chomsky, Bruce
Cumings, John Dower, Laura Hein, Gavan
McCormack, and Michael Sherry for critical
comments, sources and suggestions. The term
holocaust used in the title draws on its original
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meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary
250-51.
provides this definition: “Complete consumption
[4] A valuable synthesis of the literature on war
by fire; complete destruction, especially of a large
and the noncombatant is Sahr Conway-Lanz,
number of persons; a great slaughter or
Collateral Damage: Americans, Noncombatant
massacre.”
Immunity, and Atrocity After World War II
[1] Estimates vary, especially in the Pacific
(London: Routledge, 2006). A. C. Grayling,
theatre. See, for example, John Ellis, World Among the Dead Cities. The History and Moral
Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany
War II - A statistical survey(New York:
and Japan(New York: Walker & Company, 2006),
Facts on File, 1993); John W. Dower, War
subjects the British and American choice of area
Without Mercy (New York: Pantheon
bombing in World War II in Germany and Japan
Books, 1986), pp. 294-300; in Roger
to rigorous scrutiny from the perspectives of
Chickering, Stig Forster and Bernd Greiner,
morality, international law, and effectiveness.
eds., A World at Total War: Global ConflictThe terms area bombing, strategic bombing and
and the Politics of Destruction 1937-1945 indiscriminate bombing refer to the wholesale
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
destruction of large areas of cities, frequently
2005) p. 3, Chickering and Forster estimate
with the annihilation of the civilian population.
By contrast tactical bombing is directed to
military deaths at 15 million and civilian
deaths at more than 45 million; Wikipedia
offers a wide-ranging discussion of
numbers
and
discrete military and/or military-industrial
targets such as military bases and airfields,
bridges, and munitions factories. In practice,
sources
given technical limitations, bombs directed at
(http://apjjf.org/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_
military targets frequently exacted heavy civilian
War_II_casualties)
.
tolls. I address the issues of state terrorism and
[2] Lee Kennett, A History of Strategic Bombing
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982), pp.
the targeting of civilians by Japan and the United
States in Mark Selden and Alvin So, eds., War and
State Terrorism: The United States, Japan and the
9-38; Sven Lindqvist, A History of Bombing
(New
Asia Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century
York: New Press, 2000), pp. 31-42.
(Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).
[3] “General Report of the Commission of Jurists
at the Hague,” American Journal of International [5] A small number of works have drawn
attention to US war atrocities, typically
Law, XVII (October 1923), Supplement, pp.
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centering on the torture, killing and
destruction all over the world for which
desecration of captured Japanese soldiers.
Nazi and Japanese aggression was
These include Peter Schrijvers, The GI War collectively responsible,” a figure that he
Against Japan. American Soldiers inAsia and places at 25 million dead. He nevertheless
the Pacific During World War II
(New York:
concludes that the US and British killing of
NYU Press, 2002) and John Dower, War
noncombatants “did in fact involve the
Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacificcommission of wrongs” on a very large
War (New York: Pantheon, 1986). The
scale. Pp 5-6; 276-77. Michael Bess, in
Wartime Journals of Charles Lindbergh
(New
Choices Under Fire. Moral Dimensions of
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) is
World War II(New York: Knopf, 2006), pp.
seminal in disclosing atrocities committed
88-110, in a chapter on “Bombing Civilian
against Japanese POWs. Two recent works
closely
assess
the
bombing
Populations,” asks this question: “did this
of
taint the victory with an indelible stain of
noncombatants and the ravaging of nature
innocent blood?” After reviewing both
and society as a result of strategic bombing
strategic and ethical issues, he concludes
that has been ignored in much of the
literature. A. C. Grayling, Among the Dead
C i t i e s, p r o v i d e s a t h o r o u g h g o i n g
“There can be no excuse, in the end, for the
practices of large-scale area bombing and
firebombing of cities; these were atrocities,
assessment of US and British strategic
pure and simple. They were atrocities
bombing (including atomic bombing)
because the Anglo-Americans could
through the lenses of ethics and
definitely have won the war without
international law. Grayling’s premise is
resorting to them.” It is necessary, in my
that Allied bombing which “deliberately
view, to go further to inquire whether
targeted German and Japanese civilian
these would have constituted atrocities in
populations” and “claimed the lives of
circumstances in which the bombing,
800,000 civilian women, children and
presumably including atomic bombing,
men,” “is nowhere near equivalent in scale
were necessary for securing US victory.
of moral atrocity to the Holocaust of
European Jewry, or the death and
[6] Grayling, Among the Dead Cities
, pp. 90-91.
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Grayling goes on to note the different
Bombing, p. 81. The US debate over the
experiences of survivors of the two types of
bombing of cities is detailed in Michael
bombing, particularly as a result of radiation
Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power: The
symptoms from the atomic bomb.
Creation of Armageddon
(New Haven, Yale
[7] Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage
, provides a
University Press, 1987), pp. 23-28, pp.
useful overview of international efforts to protect
57-59. Ronald Schaffer, Wings of Judgment:
noncombatants throughout history and
American Bombing in World War (New
II
particularly since World War II. See also Timothy
York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp.
L. H. McCormack and Helen Durham, “Aerial
20-30, I08-9. Gen. Billy Mitchell's
Bombardment of Civilians: The Current
contradictory message, which became Air
International Legal Framework,” forthcoming.
Force doctrine in 1926, was that air attack
[8] The question of universality has been the
"was a method of imposing will by
centerpiece of Noam Chomsky’s critique of the
conduct of the powers, above all the United
terrorizing the whole population . . . while
States, from his earliest political writings to the
conserving life and property to the greatest
present. See, for example, the introduction to
extent." Quoted in Sherry, p. 30. See also
American Power and the New Mandarins
(New
York: Pantheon Books, 1966), pp. 4-5; Hegemony
Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage,p. 10.
or Survival.America’s Quest for Global Dominance [10] Tami Davis Biddle, “Air Power,” in Michael
Howard, George J. Andreopoulos, and Mark R.
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003), pp, 2-13,
20-23; Failed States. The Abuse of Power and theShulman, The Laws of War. Constraints on Warfare
Assault on Democracy(New York: Metropolitan
in the Western World(New Haven: Yale
Books, 2006), pp. 3-4 and passim. The Taylor
University Press, 1994), pp. 151-52. Gordon
quote is from his Nuremberg and Vietnam: an Wright, The Ordeal of Total War 1939-1945
(New
American Tragedy
, cited in Chomsky, FailedStates,
York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 26.
p. 83. John Dower offers trenchant comments on
[11] On Casablanca bombing see Charles B.
the scales of justice in Embracing Defeat
, pp.
451-74; Richard H. Minear, Victors’ Justice: The
Tokyo War Crimes Trial(Princeton: Princeton
Macdonald, World War II: The War Against
Germany and Italy
, (Army Historical Series, Office
of the Chief of Military History), chapter 22
University Press, 1971).
(http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/amh/AMH-22.ht
[9] Quoted in Lindqvist, A History of m).
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The first major British success came at Hamburg
argument for Japan, stressing other factors
in 1943 when firebombing destroyed large parts
including naval blockade, threat of
of the city and took 44,000 lives. Grayling traces
invasion, and the Soviet entry into the war
British and German shift from tactical to strategic
bombing in the early years of the war, Among the
Dead Cities, pp. 31-76.
[12] Max Hastings, Bomber Command: The Myth
and Reality of the Strategic Bombing Offensive
(New
as having far greater significance than the
fire bombing. Bombing to Win: Air Power
and Coercion in War(Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1996). The extensive
American debate over Japan’s surrender
York: Dial Press, 1979), p. 139.
has paid little attention to the firebombing,
[13] Sherry, Air Power,p. 260. With much U.S.
concentrating on the three issues of the
bombing already relying on radar, the distinction
atomic bombs, the Russian entry into the
between tactical and strategic bombing had long
war, and US terms with respect to Emperor
been violated in practice. The top brass, from
Hirohito.
George Marshall to Air Force chief Henry Arnold
to Dwight Eisenhower, had all earlier given tacit
[16] The most eloquent criticism was the writing
approval for area bombing, yet no orders from on
of Vera Brittain. Grayling, Among the Dead Cities
,
high spelled out a new bombing strategy.
pp. 180-86. In the midst of the Dresden debate,
On March 28, 1945, Churchill issued a minute
[14] Interview quoted in Richard Rhodes,
questioning the area-bombing strategy and
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
(New York:
raising the question of whether tactical bombing
Simon & Schuster, 1986), p. 593.
of key objectives was not more effective. The
minute was withdrawn following air force
[15] Schaffer, Wings, p. 97; see also Sherry,
protests. Charles Webster and Noble Frankland,
Air Power, pp. 260-63. Grayling makes a
The Strategic Air Offensive Against
Germany
compelling case for the failure of area
1939-45 ( London: HMSO, 1961), p. 112.
bombing of Germany to achieve its
[17] E. Bartlett Kerr, Flames Over Tokyo,
objective of breaking morale and causing
(New York: Fine, 1991), p. 145.
heavy destruction of cities and militaryrelated industries, thereby forcing
[18] Tsuneishi Keiichi, “Unit 731 and the
surrender, Among the Dead Cities,pp.
Japanese Imperial Army’s Biological Warware
106-07. Robert Pape made a similar
Program,” from Hata Ikuhiko and Sase Masanori,
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eds., Sekai Senso Hanzai Jiten(Encyclopedia of
Schaffer provide the most exhaustive study of the
World War Crimes), (Tokyo: Bungei Shunju,
shift in U.S. bombing policy.
2002), tr. John Junkerman, Japan Focus, Nov 20,
[23] United States Strategic Bombing
2005 japanfocus.org/products/details/2194.
Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War)
[19] Kerr, Flames OverTokyo, pp. 31-32, 41-44, 52,
(Washington: US GPO, 1946), Vol 1, p. 16.
71-74. For the October 1944 recommendations of the
Committee of Operations Analysts of the Air Force for
[24] Kerr, Flames OverTokyo, pp. 102-03,
area bombing, see pp. 83-88.
108-14, 134-38 . The limited success of
[20] Michael Sherry, “The United States
repeated efforts to destroy the Nakajima
and Strategic Bombing: From Prophecy to
Factory and other aircraft factories paved
Memory,” forthcoming; Cary Karacas,
the way for the area bombing strategy.
“Imagining Air Raids on Tokyo,
[25] Rhodes, Atomic Bomb
, pp. 596-97; Wesley
1930-1945,” paper presented at the
Frank Craven and James Lea Gate, The Pacific:
Association for Asian Studies annual
Matterhornto NagasakiJune 1944 to August 1945.
meeting, Boston, March 23, 2007, pp. 2-5.
Vol. 5, The Army Air Forces in World War II
Sherry traces other prophecies of nuclear
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953; 1983
bombing back to H.G. Wells 1913 novel
Office of Air Force History imprint) pp. 609-13;
The World Set Free. Sherry makes clear
Kerr, Flames Over Tokyo
, p. 146-50. The low-flying
that prophecy has the capacity to speak
planes, which could save fuel, carry more bombs
and better target their sites, were vulnerable to
forcefully not only to proponents but also
attack by fighter-interceptors. However, US
to energize opponents of the envisaged
attacks in mid-February destroyed most of the
future.
530 interceptors protecting the Kanto region.
Karacas, “Imagining Air Raids on Tokyo,” p. 27.
[21] Sherry, Air Power, pp. 272-73, 404-05.
In Japan in spring and summer 1945, as in
[22] Cf. Stewart Udall’s discussion of
virtually all subsequent bombing campaigns
responsibility for the US shift to area bombing,
conducted over the next six decades, the US
centering on President Roosevelt, Secretary of
ruled the sky with virtually no enemy capacity to
War Henry Stimson, and Air Force Secretary
destroy its bombers.
Robert Lovett, and the difficulty of documenting
[26] “Tokyo Under Bombardment, 1941-1945,”
responsibility for the policy shift. Sherry and
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Bethanie Institute BulletinNo. 5, translation in
includes those who died of bomb injuries months
General Headquarters Far East Command, Militaryand years later. In my view, the SBS estimates
Intelligence Section,War in Asia and the Pacific
both exaggerate the killed to injured ratio and
Vol. 12, Defense of the Homeland and End of the War,
understate the numbers killed in the Tokyo raid.
ed., Donald Detwiler and Charles Burdick (New
The Committee for the Compilation of Materials
York, 1980); see also Karacas on the imaginative
on Damage Caused by the Atomic bombs in
link between the Tokyo earthquake and the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
bombing in the Unna Juzo novel.
The Physical, Medical and Social Effects of the Atomic
Bombing (New York: Basic Books, 1991), pp.
[27] Sherry, Air Power, p. 276. A detailed
420-21; Cf. U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Field
photographic record, including images of scores
Report Covering Air Raid Protection and Allied
of the dead, some burnt to a crisp and distorted
Subjects Tokyo (n.p. 1946), pp. 3, 79.
In contrast to
beyond recognition, others apparently serene in
the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
death, and of acres of the city flattened as if by an
which for fifty years have been the subject of
immense tornado, is found in Ishikawa Koyo,
intense research by Japanese, Americans and
Tokyo daikushu no zenkiroku
(Complete Record of
others, the most significant records of the Tokyo
the Great Tokyo Air Attack) (Tokyo, 1992); Tokyo
kushu o kiroku suru kai ed., Tokyo daikushu no
kiroku(Record of the Great Tokyo Air Attack)
(Tokyo: Sanseido, 1982), and Dokyumento: Tokyo
daikushu (Document: The Great Tokyo Air
attack are those compiled at the time by Japanese
police and fire departments. In the absence of the
mystique of the atomic bomb and the ongoing
national and global focus on that event, there was
no compelling reason to continue to monitor the
Attack) (Tokyo: Yukeisha, 1968).
results of firebombing attacks on Japanese cities
[28] The Survey’s killed-to-injured ratio of better
following surrender. And neither the US military
than two to one was far higher than most
nor the Japanese government produced
estimates for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
significant records of the destruction during the
and Nagasaki where killed and wounded were
occupation. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey
approximately equal. If accurate, it is indicative
study of Effects of Air Attack on Urban Complex
of the immense difficulty in escaping for those
Tokyo-Kawasaki-Yokohama
(n.p. 1947), p. 8,
near the center of the Tokyo firestorm on that
observes that Japanese police estimates of 93,076
windswept night. The Survey’s kill ratio has,
killed and 72,840 injured in Tokyo air raids make
however, been challenged by Japanese
no mention of the numbers of people missing.
researchers who found much higher kill ratios at
Surely, too, many classified as injured died
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, particularly when one
subsequently of their wounds. In contrast to the
33
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Metropolitan Books, 2004).
monitoring of atomic bomb deaths over the
subsequent six decades, the Tokyo casualty
[35] The numbers killed, specifically the numbers
figures at best record deaths and injuries within
of noncombatants killed, in the Korean, Vietnam
days of the bombing at a time when the capacity
and Iraq wars were greater, but each of those
of the Tokyo military and police to compile
wars extended over many years.
records had been overwhelmed. Many more
certainly died in the following weeks and
[36] Mark Selden, “American Nationalism and
months. The bombing of Tokyo and other
Asian Wars,” (in progress).
Japanese cities has attracted little scholarly
[37] Cf. Dower’s nuanced historical perspective
attention either in Japan (with the exception of
on war and racism in American thought and
local museums and local studies of the bombing
praxis in War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the
of particular cities) or internationally.
Pacific War(New York: Pantheon Books, 1986). In
[29] Karacas, “Imagining Air Raids,” p. 22.
Year 501: The Conquest Continues
(Boston: South
End Press, 1993) and many other works, Noam
[30] Dokyumento. Tokyo daikushu
, pp. 168-73.
Chomsky emphasizes the continuities in Western
[31] John W. Dower, “Sensational Rumors,
ideologies that undergird practices leading to the
Seditious Graffiti, and the Nightmares of the
annihilation of entire populations in the course of
Thought Police,” in Japan in War and Peace(New
colonial and expansionist wars over half a
York: The New Press, 1993), p. 117. United States
millennium and more.
Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report
, Vol I,
[38] Geoffrey Best, War and Law Since 1945.
pp. 16-20.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) pp. 180-81.
[32] Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage, p. 1.
[39] See for example Robert Jay Lifton and Greg
[33] Kerr, Flames OverTokyo, pp. 337-38.
Mitchell, Hiroshimain America. Fifty Years of
Denial. (New York: Grossett/Putnam, 1945), Parts
[34] Two excellent complementary accounts of
II-IV; Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage
, pp. 13-16.
important dimensions of the geopolitics and
political economy of contemporary US empire
are Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire.
[40] Bombing would also be extended from
cities to the countryside, as in the Agent
Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
Orange defoliation attacks that destroyed
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), and
the forest cover and poisoned residents of
Michael T. Klare, Blood and Oil(New York:
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sprayed areas of Vietnam.
II casualties and deaths, notably in Asia. Cf. John
[41] I have explored issues of Japan’s China war
data, War Without Mercy
, pp. 295-300, and “Race,
Dower’s compilation and discussion of the basic
and the Chinese resistance in China in Revolution: Language and War in Two Cultures,” in Japan in
The Yenan Way Revisited
(Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, War and Peace
, p. 257.
1995), and in Edward Friedman, Paul G.
[43] Dower, Embracing Defeat
, pp. 443-47;
Pickowicz and Mark Selden, Chinese Village,
Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage
, pp. 16-17.
Socialist State (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1991). An insightful discussion of Japanese war
[44] Mark Selden, “Nationalism, Historical
crimes in the Pacific, locating the issues within a
Memory and Contemporary Conflicts in
comparative context of atrocities committed by
the
the US, Germany, and other powers, is Yuki
Asia
Pacific:
the
Yasukuni
Tanaka’s Hidden Horrors: Japanese Crimes in WorldPhenomenon, Japan, and the United States
War II. Takashi Yoshida, The Making of the “Rape (http://apjjf.org/japanfocus.org/products
of Nanking”: History and Memory in
Japan, China
/details/2204)”; Takahashi Tetsuya, "The
and theUnited States(Oxford: Oxford University
National Politics of the Yasukuni Shrine" in
Press, 2006) examines the understanding of the
Naoko Shimazu, ed., Nationalisms inJapan
Nanjing Massacre in each country. Daqing Yang
(London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 155-80;
surveys the contentious Chinese and Japanese
literature on the rape of Nanjing in “A Sino-
Caroline Rose, “The Battle for Hearts and
Japanese Controversy: The Nanjing Atrocity as
Minds. Patriotic education in Japan in the
History,” Sino-Japanese Studies
, (November 1990),
1990s and beyond,” in Shimazu, pp. 131-54.
pp. 14-35. For additional studies of Japanese war
The Japanese government has apologized
atrocities and the search for justice for victims,
to the military comfort women (jugun
see articles by Utsumi Aiko, William
Underwood,
Yoshiko
Nozaki,
ianfu), most notably in the 1993 statement
Gavan
of Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei. But in
McCormack, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Yuki Tanaka,
contrast to Germany’s extensive state-
Mark Selden and others at Japan Focus,
financed reparations to Nazi victims, the
http://japanfocus.org.
Japanese government dodged its
[42] R.J.R. Bosworth, Explaining Auschwitzand
responsibility by establishing a “private
Hiroshima. History Writing and the Second World
fund” to provide reparations of 200,000
War 1945-1990 (London: Routledge, 1993). Wide
yen to surviving comfort women. For this
discrepancies remain with respect to World War
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reason, strong opposition to the program,
Warfare. America’s Hidden Arsenal
, (New York:
particularly in South Korea and Taiwan led
Anchor Books,1969), p. 18.
the majority of survivors to reject the
[51] Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare,
pp.
compensation.
28-32. See also Ronald B. Frankum Jr., Like Rolling
Thunder. The Air War inVietnam, 1964-1975
[45] Quoted in Noam Chomsky, “War on
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), pp.
Terror,”
88-92.
(http://www.chomsky.info/talks/2006011
[52] Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare
, pp.
8.pdf) Amnesty International Lecture,
Trinity College, January 18, 2006.
131-33. Hersh notes that the $60 million worth of
[46] Collateral Damage
, pp. 18-19. Conway-
budget would have been sufficient to defoliate
defoliants and herbicides in the 1967 Pentagon
Lanz traces major US debates since 1945
3.6 million acres if all were used optimally.
centered on noncombatant deaths to show
[53] Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare
,
that the question of intention, not the scale
pp. 134, 156-57. Canadian Dr. Alje
of noncombatant deaths caused by
Vennema described the symptoms of gas
American actions, repeatedly trumped
victims at Quang Ngai hospital where he
counter arguments in policy debates over
worked in 1967, including two children
atomic and hydrogen bombs and the
and one adult who died.
targeting of cities and villages for
destruction.
[54] Elizabeth Becker, “Kissinger Tapes Describe
Crises, War and Stark Photos of Abuse,” The New
[47] General Curtis LeMay, Oral History, 1966,
York Times, May 27, 2004.
cited in Marilyn Young, “Total War”, conference
paper, 2006.
[55] “Bombs Over Cambodia: New Light
[48] Young, “Total War.”
on US Indiscriminate Bombing,” Walrus,
[49] Bruce Cumings, Origins of the Korean War December 7, 2006.
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990)
[56] Michael Sherry, The United States and
v.2, p. 755.
Strategic Bombing: From Prophecy to Memory,”
[50] Seymour M. Hersh, Chemical and Biological forthcoming.
36
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[57] Seymour Hersh, “Up in the Air Where
(http://apjjf.org/../../../products/details
is the Iraq war headed next?” The New
/2287) JapanFocus. December 6, 2006.
Yorker, Dec 5, 2005; Dahr Jamail, “Living
Under
the
[59] Anthony Arnove, “Four Years Later...
Bombs,
And Counting. Billboarding the Iraqi
(http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mht
Disaster
ml?pid=2166)” TomDispatch, February 2,
(http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mht
2005; Michael Schwartz, “A Formula for
ml?pid=176493)”, TomDispatch
, March 18,
Slaughter. The American Rules of
2007. Seymour Hersh, “The Redirection. Is
Engagement
Air
the Administration’s new policy benefiting
(http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mht
our enemies in the war on terrorism?” The
ml?pid=48180),” TomDispatch, January 14,
New Yorker March 3, 2007. Michael
from
the
2005.
Schwartz, “Baghdad Surges into Hell. First
[58] Tom Barry, “The Militarization of
(http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mht
Results from the President’s Offensive”
Space and U.S. Global Dominance: the
China
ml?pid=165183sad),
Connection”
Tom
Dispatch,
February 12, 2007.
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765604477/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)
37
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Click on a cover to order.
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0742523918/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)
38