America’s Greatest War Crime Was Not The Use Of Atomic Bombs
This general caused far more deaths than just those bombs, and we’re still paying the price.
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Before reading this article, please remember that this is history, not political polemic. Let go of any political nationalism. In war, it is normal for all sides commit war crimes. The fact that one side committed far worse crimes than the other does not detract from, much less excuse the crimes committed by the other side.
The above photograph is instructive. It is of Tokyo, which a few days before was the most densely-populated city on the planet. See the wide-open spaces between the multistory concrete buildings? Before the devastation of the firebombing raid of March 9/10, 1945, those open spaces were filled with homes and businesses, most of which would have been multistory, too. But being constructed almost entirely of wood and bamboo, they comprised one of the greatest deathtraps in human history.
By early 1945, victory was no longer possible for Japan. Its factories, being starved of raw materials and oil by the near-total blockade by the US Navy, were at a virtual standstill. What little oil was left was relegated mostly to the air defense forces, for any ship that left port — whether military or civilian — was almost certain to be sunk in short order. But the Japanese High Command, still convinced that Japan could successfully resist any invasion by the hated Yankees, refused to surrender. America was by now weary of war, and it was estimated that any invasion would cost up to a million casualties to our forces (and far more to the Japanese). No one of consequence on either side wanted America to invade Japan.
Sun Tzu once said, “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” In 1943, President Roosevelt violated this maxim with his demand for unconditional surrender by the Axis powers. Instead of allowing any possibility of ending hostilities by diplomacy, he literally left the German and Japanese high commands with the choice of victory or death; either defeat the Allies or hang after capture, defeat, and trial. The impossibility of a negotiated peace is likely the single greatest factor in Japan’s refusal to surrender to the overwhelmingly…
