This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Another example was America's firebombing of Tokyo. The first raid came on February 24, 1945 when 174 planes destroyed one square mile of the city.
The major attack came days later on March 9 when 279 Superforts demolished 16 square city miles, killed an estimated 100,000 in the firestorm, injured many more, and left over one million homeless.
Around five dozen other Japanese cities were also firebombed at a time most structures there were wooden and easily consumed. And for what?
Early in 1945, Japan extended peace feelers. Then, two days before the February Yalta Conference, Douglas MacArthur sent Roosevelt a 40-page summary of its terms.
They were near-unconditional. Japan would accept an occupation, cease hostilities, surrender its arms, remove all troops from occupied territories, submit to criminal war trials, and allow its industries to be regulated. In return, they asked only that their Emperor be retained in an honorable capacity.
Roosevelt spurned the offer. So did Truman. Tokyo was first firebombed. Then in August, atom bombs were used for the first time against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, gratuitously when Japan was largely destroyed and near collapse. Combined, they took a horrendous toll from immediate death and later radiation poisoning.
It culminated the Pacific conflict John Dower called "War Without Mercy" in his book by that title.
The Crime of Fallujah
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
