by Gary Betts

Created on: August 07, 2007   Last Updated: July 18, 2011

Just as Japan owes China and Korea an apology for atrocities it committed during World War II, the United States also owes an apology to Japan for atrocities it committed during the same war.

The U.S. bombing raids on Japanese homeland civilian targets during the last nine months of the Pacific war, were so relentless and unmerciful, that Japan was obviously put in a weakened position. Japanese defenses were overwhelmed by the U.S. air power thrown at the country. The death toll among Japanese civilians was so great, 580,000 in just nine months, that the U.S. air force commanders were guilty of war crimes. That's over 2,000 civilian deaths a day. It must be noted that Japan never did attack American civilian targets. It only attacked military targets such as Pearl Harbor.

The United States, for all intents and purposes, had beaten Japan before the bombing even started. After the liberation of the Philippines and the capture of Okinawa, oil imports into Japan were completely cut off. Without fuel, the Japanese air force and navy, for the most part, had ceased to exist. Because of the blockade and the destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet, Japan was facing an economic disaster by mid-1944. Japan became a pathetic nation holed up in their small home islands and would eventually surrender without an invasion due to a lack of food and fuel. Even General Henry H Arnold, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe and the Pacific, had said that he did not believe that atomic bombs nor an invasion would be necessary to win the war.

But the U.S. proceeded with its bombing campaign against Japan. Tokyo was fire-bombed in March 1945 with the death of about 90,000 civilians. Kobe was later fire-bombed with the death of about 9,000 civilians. Then there was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 06, 1945 with the immediate death of about 140,000 civilians. Nagasaki was atomic-bombed on August 09, 1945 with the immediate death of about 74,000 civilians. The death totals would increase over the following decades in the last two raids. By August 1945, the U.S. had destroyed 40% of the urban areas in 66 Japanese cities through a massive aerial campaign.

I believe that the U.S. could have forced Japan into surrendering with just limited conventional air strikes on non-civilian targets and the blockade. An invasion was unnecessary. But the U.S. chose to kill innocent civilians through the massive bombing of cities including fire-bombing and two atomic bombs.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>