{"id":13408,"date":"2021-05-18T11:33:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T18:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=13408"},"modified":"2021-05-18T11:33:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T18:33:42","slug":"historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Historian\u2019s Corner: The Firebombing of Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Residential Area in Tokyo Bombed on March 9-10, 1945
Image source: \u7c73\u8ecd\u64ae\u5f71, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part One: The Question <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the evening of March 9th, 1945 over 334 B-29 heavy bombers came in low over Tokyo, Japan, on the orders of Gen. Curtis LeMay. They were carrying over 2,000 tons of napalm. In short order, waves of the huge bombers burned out perhaps 15 square miles of the central core of Tokyo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting 80,000-120,000 deaths may have constituted the greatest loss of human life in a single day of war. It certainly was the deadliest air raid in history and exceeded the death toll of Hiroshima. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the last few years, a number of popular accounts have damned all the fire raids of World War II, especially the British and American raids (both against Dresden and Hamburg and the Japanese cities), as barbaric, inhuman, pointless and counterproductive. They were certainly lethal and often indiscriminate in their targeting. See the highly contentious journalistic account, Human Smoke<\/em>, of Nicholson Baker (author of the novel Checkpoint<\/em> in which characters talk incessantly about the assassination of George W. Bush), Sinclair McKay\u2019s The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945<\/em>, and Malcom Gladwell\u2019s recent video-book production (The Bomber Mafia<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote about some of the issues in The Second World Wars<\/em>, and earlier Ripples of Battle<\/em> (concerning the Okinawa campaign). The arguments pro and con are many but especially hinge on the value of hindsight, the information known at the time to the American generals, and the status of the war in March-June 1945 in the Pacific\u2014and guesses on what it would be like in late 1945 and 1946. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all recent books criticize the firebombing and do so from a variety of angles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) The sheer loss of life was unnecessary;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Most of the dead were innocent civilians;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) The area bombing was contrary to a democracy\u2019s pretense of moral superiority;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) The bombing was one-sided, asymmetrical, and disproportionate and, in our contemporary terms, \u201cunfair\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) There were no militarily significant targets that justified such loss of life;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6) The war was ending soon anyway: in hatred and spite, we obliterated a dying war machine\u2019s home front;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than address these arguments directly in this session, I will list the reasons in Part Two for the raid, and, in Part Three, why later historians have sometimes misunderstood the decision of Curtis LeMay to unleash the B-29s at low level with napalm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part One: The Question  On the evening of March 9th, 1945 over 334 B-29 heavy bombers came in low over Tokyo, Japan, on the orders of Gen. Curtis LeMay. They were carrying over 2,000 tons of napalm. In short order, waves of the huge bombers burned out perhaps 15 square […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3ug","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9265,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-horrors-of-hiroshima-in-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":0},"title":"The Horrors of Hiroshima in Context","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains the only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history. No one knows exactly how many Japanese citizens were killed by the two American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10753,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/chinas-new-greater-east-asia-co-prosperity-sphere\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":1},"title":"China\u2019s New Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 China is following the same path to regional hegemony that Japan did in the 1930s. \u00a0 A few weeks ago, Chinese president Xi Jinping offered a Soviet-style five-year plan for China\u2019s progress at the Communist Party congress in Beijing. Despite his talk of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The West"","block_context":{"text":"The West","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-west\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13414,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":2},"title":"Historian’s Corner: The Firebombing of Japan","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"B-29 Superfortress Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part Two:\u00a0Very Bad Versus Worse Choices? 1) The Japanese Empire, while doomed in Spring 1945, was more than capable of killing thousands of innocents every day the war dragged on. Depending on the nature of particular sources, and how data are compiled\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4308,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/60-years-later-considering-hiroshima\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":3},"title":"60 Years Later: Considering Hiroshima","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online For 60 years the United States has agonized over its unleashing of the world\u2019s first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. President Harry Truman\u2019s decision to explode an atomic bomb over an ostensible military target \u2014 the headquarters of the crack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2005"","block_context":{"text":"August 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/august-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13440,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":4},"title":"Historian’s Corner: The Firebombing of Japan","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part Three. The Nihilist Logic of Death Once the sick dogs of war are unleashed, legalized murder has a Satanic logic of its own. In the US case, the agenda from December 8 onward was how to end the war as quickly as possible\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-3\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9277,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/setting-the-record-straight-on-britain-america-and-world-war-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":13408,"position":5},"title":"Setting the Record Straight on Britain, America, and World War II","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online While in London last week, President Obama waded into the upcoming British referendum about whether the United Kingdom should stay in the European Union. Controversy followed his lecture about the future of the Anglo-American relationship should Britain depart the EU. Obama also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13411,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13408\/revisions\/13411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}