Targeting Civilians
In the 1930s, both the United
States and Britain
refrained from targeting civilians in wartime bombings regarding such actions
as savage and ruthless. Indeed, before
the war began, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a parliamentary speech
declaring that it was “against international law to bomb civilians as such and
to make deliberate attacks on the civilian population.” The American State Department made a similar
statement in 1937 condemning the Japanese bombing of Chinese cities, “Any
general bombing of an extensive area wherein there resides a large population
engaged in peaceful pursuits is unwarranted and contrary to the principles of law
and humanity.” President Franklin Roosevelt spoke to the
issue as well calling civilian bombing “inhuman barbarism.”
But the onset of World War II began
the transition away from these earlier beliefs.
The movement was first initiated by Winston Churchill and the British government
in response to Germany’s
dropping of bombs on London. It was at this point when Churchill articulated
the need for an “absolutely devastating exterminating attack by very heavy
bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland.” Also pushing Britain
toward this change in policy was the fact that military officials began to
realize that the bombs being dropped from aircrafts were not accurate enough to
destroy specific targets (i.e. bases, factories), and thus a more effective use
of these bombs would be to direct them at cities where there destruction would
have more severe effects.
Nighttime Firebombing Mission over Tokyo- B-29 Bombers
Thus,
in 1942 under the command of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the Royal Air Force
shifted its focus toward destroying “the morale of the enemy civil population.” In the summer of 1942, the United States Air
Force joined the strategic bombing campaign of Britain. While the US
had tried to avoid bombing civilian populations, daytime “precision bombing”
had become a costly liability because German day fighters were able to detect
and destroy many American fighter planes. Together under this new policy of “strategic
bombing”, Great Britain
and the United States
command dropped thousands of firebombs on the cities of Cologne,
Hamburg and Dresden
incurring huge casualties.
In 1945, the
US extended
their policy of targeting innocent civilians to the cities of Japan,
resulting in even greater destruction than any of the European campaigns. In fact, one night’s worth of fire raiding on
Tokyo
claimed the lives of more than 80,000 civilians, more than the casualties incurred
from the atomic bomb detonation in Nagasaki. The United
States would continue to drop incendiary
bombs on innocent, Japanese women and children until the equally horrific use
of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki forced Japan
to surrender.
Britain and
America’s shift in policy from respecting the human rights of innocent citizens
during war to specifically targeting peaceful, non-strategic populations reflects
the monstrosity of war, and the way in which its cruel realities erode the
moral principles that govern our world society. World War II polarized the
world the way people viewed humanity. People
were either allies or enemies, good or evil.
There was no in between and unfortunately, such inhumane and
oversimplified distinctions resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent
citizens in the bombing campaigns of the Second World War.
To learn
more about the British Bombing Strategy in WWII, click here
For a list
of articles and books on this subject, click here
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