Approximately 30 percent of the entire urban population of Japan lost their homes and many of their possessions.” United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War) July 1946, p. “In the aggregate, some 40 percent of the built-up area of the 66 cities attacked was destroyed. bombers dropping incendiary bombs created a firestorm that devastated 15 square miles of the city and killed approximately 100,000 people, with hundreds of thousands injured. The incendiary attack on Tokyo, the most destructive air raid in history, occurred on March 9 & 10, 1945. As a result, many Japanese ignored the warnings and died when the attacks came. dropped similar leaflets on cities that were not going to be attacked, disrupting economic activity and causing confusion and panic. However, as a tactic of psychological warfare, the U.S. dropped leaflets before the raids warning civilians to evacuate the cities that were attacked from the air. Before the end of the war, 66 major urban centers in Japan were severely damaged by air strikes, in addition to the two cities that suffered atomic bomb attacks. Realizing this, the Army Air Forces favored incendiaries that burned vast areas. In Japanese cities, most buildings were built of wood and paper. had almost complete control of the skies over Japan as well as bases close to the Japanese home islands. The Allies repaid the Germans and the Japanese for their atrocities against civilians, primarily by devastating German and Japanese cities from the air and killing even more civilians. What if there had been one-hundred 9/11s or one thousand? Think of what the reaction was for 9/11, in which about 3000 people were killed. As the war progressed, the people of the Allies and their governments became furious and willing to kill massive numbers of civilians to attain victory. The Allies (the U.S., Britain, and the U.S.S.R.) had been appalled by the German and Japanese attacks on civilians. Rummel, University of Hawaii, accessed on November 23, 2011.Ĭonditions for Allied prisoners of war in Japanese prison camps were extremely brutal. Statistics Of Japanese Democide, Estimates, Calculations, And Sources by R.J. This democide was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture (such as the view that those enemy soldiers who surrender while still able to resist were criminals). The Japanese army also killed millions of civilians:įrom the invasion of China in 1937 to the end of World War II, the Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. An estimated 20 million citizens of the Soviet Union were killed by the Germans. Eleven million people died in German concentration camps, six million Jews and another five million non-Jews, such as Poles, political opponents, the Roma, the handicapped and the mentally ill. The Germans also killed millions of people in the areas that they controlled. The goal was to destroy the morale of the British people and soften up the country for a German invasion. The Germans bombed London and other cities in Britain early in the war. In both cases, the war of terror on civilians was begun by the Axis countries. In addition, attacks on civilians were used to terrorize the opponents and break their will to resist. Many of these targets were in civilian areas. Thus, factories and means of transportation were considered legitimate targets. The Second World War was a “total war” in which the entire economy and all scientific and industrial capacities of the combatants were harnessed to the war effort. The information will increase students’ appreciation of the movie. FICTION (SOAPS, DRAMAS, AND REALITY/SURVIVAL SHOW).