Quote:In a war like that, the distinction between civilian and military targets is pretty blurry.   The British, particularly Air Marshal Harris, considered German civilians a legitimate military target, since they worked in German defense industries.  The British carried out a deliberate policy of targeting German civilians in bombing raids.  

 

In Japan, a lot of weapons were made in people's homes.  In the Civil War, the Union armies attacked the underlying support for the Confederate armies, which was the farms in places like Georgia and Virginia.  

 

World War II was a life and death struggle.   The Germans and the Japanese were slaughtering civilians.   300,000 civilians executed in Nanking in 1937 and 1938.   Millions of civilians killed by the Germans in the invasion of the Soviet Union. 

 

There were estimates that the United States would lose up to 1 million soldiers if we had to invade Japan.   There were also estimates that the Japanese losses would total 10 million or more in an invasion. 

 

With all that in mind, I think dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was absolutely the right thing to do, from both a military and a humanitarian point of view.  

My disagreement with that post was more with the idea that military bases somehow aren't legitimate targets because they have civilians on them. I certainly agree that the distinction between military and civilian target had largely disappeared by the time of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

 

The problem with analyzing a war like WW2 is that we hadn't fought a war on that scale before than and we haven't since. You could argue WW1 was on the same level but technology at the time didn't allow for the mass targeting of civilian populations. WW2 was really unique in that the participants turned the whole of their industrial and military capabilities towards the war effort, production of civilian goods and products was restricted to a case of bare neccesity. When the whole of a country is geared for war an argument can be made that the whole of the country becomes a legitimate target. At least, that's how I understand the rationale for the mass bombing raids on Germany and the nuclear bombings of Japan. 

---