RSSOld war crimes
Jul 11
This keeps coming up in my mind lately, and more frequently since they keep showing all these war history programs on the History Channel (which I watch because normally I’d rather see something real than the rest of the crap on TV.)
I’ve known how bad the US/British firebombing of Japan was at the end of WW2, but I didn’t realize until yesterday just how bad it was.
In one of the first big raids they dropped enough napalm to demolish 16 square miles of civilian areas in Tokyo. This is estimated to have killed 100,000 civilians in one night within the ensuing firestorm. Even the commander of the forces at the time later reflected “I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.” They then proceeded to do the same to another 31 square miles over the next several days.
This is insane. During a war you have to expect that military and industrial targets will be bombed, but leveling 16 square miles of a heavily populated city with napalm? And these were the “good guys”?
It proves that history really does get re-written by the victors. How many kids in the US are told this in history class?
Jul 11, 2005 @ 15:46:43
They also firebombed many cities in Germany. I think it was either Hamburg or Dresdan that the allies incinerated. I don’t think history has been re-written in this case, it’s available to thoes that are interested it’s just that educators don’t really address it as they should (IMHO). I guess what really bothers me is that Napalm and things like it are still being used today.
Jul 12, 2005 @ 09:30:29
Here’s another fun fact:
Before dropping fat man and little boy on them, the US had specifically ordered no bombardments on or near Hiroshima. They guessed, correctly, that the Japanese would move civilian refugees into the cities that seemed least prone to attack. That way, they could guarantee the highest possible civilian casualties with a single bomb.
So, um, yeah, the History Channel rules.
=D