I.

World War II and the costs to civilians: Explaining the deliberate killing of 30-50 million innocent people.
A. B. C. D. In WWI only 5 percent of deaths civilian WWII ~70% of deaths civilians (keep in mind we estimate that 20 million soldiers died). In 1970 civilians accounted for 80% of deaths. s In WWII we area traditionally taught about the German Holocaust and the horrors associated with it. 1. 2. 3. This only explains about 25% of the killing that took place in WWII also removes any responsibility for the murder of 10-30 million today we look at systematic killing of civilians and in particular ll the similarities between the allied strategic bombing campaigns and the holocaust.

II.

Similarities between Strategic bombing and the holocaust

A. Both entail the calculated indiscriminate slaughter of masses of defenseless humans.
1. 2. Many of the targets of civilians bombing attacks were children and the elderly Fit and able bodied people had been removed from cities to mobilize them into the industrial labor force.

B.

Jews were killed by virtue of being Jewish. Germans civilians were killed by virtue of where they happened to live.
1. 2. In both Germany and Japan, anyone who cared to not participate had no choice. Any citizen in both countries that questioned the war effort was deemed guilty of treason a crime punishable by death.

C.

Both the killing of Jews and the bombing of civilians were national security polices.
1. In both Germany and in the US decisions makers felt that the solution the elimination or coercion of civilians served a greater good (however warped that good might have been).

D.

In both cases, normalpeople were necessary for the polices to be executed.

1.

In both Germany, Japan and among the allies, the killers regarded themselves not as mass murderers but as patriots performing a grim and necessary task.

III. Was the killing in WWII unique?

A. In the 2nd Punic war (146 BC) the Romans destroyed Carthage,
1. 2. 3. after the cities forces fell, Roman soldiers burned the city to the ground, killed 150,000 out of 200,000 sold the remainder into slavery.

B.

During the Mongol conquests, Genghis Kahn and successors believed that city life was corrupt and dissolute and as such should be destroyed. And they did.
1. In AD 1258 the Mongols captured Baghdad a) b) 2. proceeded to massacre 800,000 of the inhabitants and razed the city. This ended the era of Mesopotamian cities which could be traced back to the 4th millennium BC.

Tamerlane, who claimed to be a descendant of Kahn invaded India in 1398. a) b) c) In 1383 he build 2,000 prisoners into a mound and bricked them over in 1398 massacred 100,000 prisoners in Delhi In 1400 he buried alive 4,000 Christian soldiers in Sivas

C.

The 30 years war: 1618-1648

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Cities besieged and occupants slaughtered for their food and to reduce them Population of Germany dropped from 21 million in 1618 to 13 million in 1648 In Bohemia, 29/35,000 villages destroyed. Of the 8 million Germans killed in the war, only about 350,000 were soldiers. This leads to about 150 years of lower intensity war

D.

Until the French Revolution.

1. 2.

Under Napoleon mass armies came into vogue. Led to the first national income tax (1799) to defray the cost of the expanded army. Also the systematic plundering of civilian areas returned.

E.

American civil war (1861-1865)

1. 2. 3. 4. New technology ups the ante. 622,000 battle field deaths, more than WWI and II, Korea and Vietnam combined. Concentration camps next seen in WWII emerge (Vicksburg) Civilians feel the taste of war: a) b) Famine widespread in South. Union General Sherman brought home to war to the south with his infamous march to the sea. (1) Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to occupy it; but the utter destruction of the roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources...We are not only fighting hostile areas, but a hostile people, and must make young and old, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war. This has led to the now famous saying: The South Will Rise Again.

(2)

F.

20th century the worst.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 60 million civilians killed through war and deliberate genocide in Soviet Union alone. Turks kill more than 1 million Armenians in 1915 Holocaust 5-6 million Jews and 4 million others by Nazis between 1939 and 1945 3 million Ibo tribesman by Nigerian authorities in 1967-1970 Pakistani army killed 3 million Bengalis in 1971 Kmer Rouge killed up to 3 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. In Iran Iraq war 1,000,000 soldiers killed.

G.

How did the killing escalate in the 20th century? 1. Industrialization

a) Battle at Ypres 4.3 million artillery shells with more than 100 kilotons of explosives (equivalent to .5 megatons of fission bombs).
3

b)

Industry allows the outfitting on huge armies: (1) (2) 100 of millions of shells fired or dropped in WWI s and II, need enormous factories to do this. US goal is to build 50,000 bombers a year! Germany mobilizes an army of 13 million men. The allies respond by putting 18 million men into uniform.

c)

Mass conscription reaches its zenith: (1) (2)

2.

Technology
a) b) c) Poison gas kills or wounds 1 million soldiers in WWI long distance bombers more accurate weapons

3.

Psychological explanation
a) The killing of WWI dulled the senses and led to greater heights in WWII.

4.

By WWII, war is, in fact, becoming the total War that

a) Clausewitz talked about but felt was something that could never be reached due to friction.

H.

Is democracy a brake on genocide or total war? 1. Does democracy counter the above factors and prevent slip to total war? a) Yes:
(1) yes in that their is a lack of secret police agencies which have typically carried out the genocidal policies. freedom of press inhibits: in Vietnam press served to check US behavior, in Afghanistan no such break existed. multiparty competition means that opposition groups to killing either will exist and be able to speak or can emerge.

(2)

(3)

b)

No:
(1) assaults on native Americans

(2) (3) (4)

attempts to exterminate aborigines in Australia genocide of Tasmanians (killed all but 10,000). when democracies engage in war with totalitarian regimes, they tend o take on some of the attributes in an attempt to escalate the level of war and the mobilization of society.

IV. Cases: WWII, Japan, Germany, US, Britain, Soviet Union

A. Japan 1. Japan begins the indescriminant bombing of civilians in 1937-39.
a) b) c) d) 300,000 Chinese civilians die in the Yangtze river delta alone. Widely photographed and seen around world. In the units in Nanking, as part of commissioning, new officers were required to behead a living Chinese male. This leads to condemnation by League of Nations and US. Senate resolution of June 1938L singles out Japanese ads being the major practitioners of the inhuman bombing of civilian populations.

2.

Rape of Nanking
a) Japanese lay siege to Nanking. 750,000 Chinese solider and 250,000 Japanese. Eventually as the city begins to fall, the civilians flee. After the fall, Japanese drop leaflets to get people to come back, ostensibly to bring order to city again under Japanese administration. Instead, when people return, men are murdered (100,000) women are raped in a deliberate fashion (20,000). In 4 months Japanese murder 200,000. Army was let loose into city in order to strike fear into other cities so that they would not resist in the future. Mass rape makes a mark here as troops were encouraged by senior officer to rape, loot, murder and burn. Opium is sold at low, low prices: why? to finance war and to pacify the populace.

b) c) d) e) f)

3.

Unit 731: Experiments on Humans subjects for chemical and biological warfare

a)

scientists and medical doctors (1) (2) (3) large facility with a staff of 3,000 scientists, technicians, doctors and security personal. Did experiments with plague, anthrax, smallpox, salmonella. Did controlled experiments with the agents on various nationalities to see if there were differences by race most autopsies conducted on living humans without anesthetic to ensure results would not be biased by the presence of drugs. women were deliberately infected with syphilis and the disease was allowed to run its course to observe the long-term effects. The US was aware MacArthur arranged for leaders to not only not be prosecuted but also allowed to lecture to US army chemical weapons specialists at Ft Detrickt MD.

(4)

(5)

b)

None of the physicians were held accountable. (1) (2)

4.

Scorched earth policy against communists

a) b) c) d) e) f) total war was declared against peasants. Officers ordered their troops to loot all, kill all, burn all. Villages destroyed, crops destroyed. If people fled, they were hunted down, returned to their villages and murdered. Based on Japanese records, the campaign reduced the population in one occupied area form 44 million to 25 million (19 million killed or starved to death).

5.

Bataan death march

a) On April 9,1942, 66,000 Filipino and 12,000 US troops surrender to Japanese in Bataan. (1) Pan was to have troops walk 60 miles to San Fernando where they would be shipped by train to camps in central Luzon Beatings common

(2)

(3) (4)

No water permitted during the day. When they reached the train depot, they were forced onto trains in amazing numbers with no room to sit. (a) They were jammed in standing room only. Into the oven, the doors were closed. Men fainted with no place to fall...dysentery. As they cars swayed, the urine, the sweat and the vomit rolled three inches deep back and forth around and in our shoes.

(5)

Of the 132,000 Americans taken prisoner by Japanese 36,000 died in captivity.

6.

Thai-Burma Railway of Death

a) b) c) d) Captured British and Dutch, Australians, Chinese and Malay were used as slave labor built a railroad across 600 miles of Thai swampland and jungle. 20,000 British troops laid an average of 17 miles of track a day. Casualties up to 50%

7.

Rape of Manila
a) As Japanese began to fall and planned to evacuate parts of manilla, they destroyed the city in retribution against the inhabitants 100/700,000 killed. City completely destroyed. Babies catch-toss with bayonets. Officers ordered the troops to mass rape the women in the city.

b) c) d)

8.

Totals:
a) b) c) d) Overall, the Japanese kill 2.6 million unarmed Chinese civilians. 90,000 Filipino civilians murdered In the remaining areas of the co-prosperity sphere, more than 2 million civilians were put to death. Rummell estimates the total number of civilians deliberately put to death by the Japanese to be between 3 and 10.6 million people.

B.

Germany
7

1. 2.

Holocaust
a) 6 million Jews deliberately murdered

Soviet victims
a) b) Germans destroyed homes, farms, crops, livestock as the moved across western Russia and Ukraine. Germans killed 8.5 million Soviet civilians.

3.

Ukrainians
a) b) 10 million Ukrainians killed starved to death 500,000 Soviet soldiers in POW camps.

4.

Poles
a) b) c) d) Town leaders rounded up and shot 700 priests shot In Poznan the Gestapo ran a torture training school. By the end of the war 6 million poles killed, half Jew half Christian.

5.

Gypsies
a) b) First used as guinea pigs in Mengeles death camp by wars end killed 250,000

C.

Croatia
1. 2. 3. Ustashi government took over in Croatia and planned to kill all Serbs. Between 1941 and 1945 killed 750,000 Serbs Used a variety of methods. a) b) c) concentration camps in other villages were tied together and then tortured with knives and bayonets In final spasm of killing they would wire together groups of 800-1,200 people. Then hit them in the head, then push them off the edge of a cliff so that they entire group would be dragged into the Drina river gorge. Pan was to kill of 1.2 million Serbs, managed to kill roughly half.

D.

Soviet Union 1. During and immediately after WWII Stalin killed 13 million of his own people.
8

a)

5.5 million Soviet soldiers that had been captured by Germans were repatriated and immediately branded as traitors. 1.1 million sent to labor camps, 300,000 sent to death camps,

b) c)

2. 3.

Prisons (which used labor to run) were emptied and prisoners all shot 10 million other civilians placed into gulags,
a) of these 8.5 million died while in transit to the camps or there.

4.

Forced deportation of Tartars:

a) b) after Germans lose, Stalin moves Tartars from Crimea to Uzbeckistan. Of the 1.6 million deported, 530,000 died en route.

5.

Demographers best guesses are that Soviet action led to the death of 15 million Soviets,
a) Nazis killed 20 million Soviets.

6.

From 1917-1987, the best estimate is that the Soviets killed 61.9 million of their own people.
a) b) c) d) e) 8 million in campaigns of terror 5 million deported to concentration camps where they died 40 million died in internal gulags 9 million died as the result of deliberately induced famines to reduce resistance to collectivization 20 million killed during wars

E.

Britain 1. Churchill and the Bengal famine of 1943.

a) b) c) d) As Thailand and Burma fell, Britain feared an invasion of India via Bengal. Bengal was dependent on rice imports. British destroy rice patties and ban use of any boat that was capable of carrying over 10 people. NYTs carried coverage f worsening conditions

e) f)

British censors removed mention of words : Starving, corpses, famine. Finally in 1944, Churchill admits to Roosevelt that there may be a problem. Roosevelt does nothing in terms of shipping more grain to region. Between 1943-44 3 million people starved to death

g)

2.

Strategic Bombing a) Initial restraint

(1) At outset of war British bombers deliberately avoided civilians targets.

b)

Erosion of restraint
(1) (2) (3) Churchill replaces Chamberlain and is a big advocate of aggressive bombing. brutal treatment of Poles leads to weakening of resolve (if they doing it why can we?) re t Battle of Britain and the subsequent blitz led to very high civil casualties which led to a sense of the need for retribution. Pressure mounted when 20,000 homes and 500 civilians killed in a German rain on Coventry,

(4)

c)

Bomber Command targets the morale of German Citizens.

(1) In Feb. 1942 Bomber command takes a new tack: It has been decided that the primary objective of your operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy civilian population, and in particular, of the industrial workers. Churchill chief science advisor writes: s Investigation seems to show that having one s house demolished is most damaging to morale. People seem to mind it more than having their friends or even relatives killed. Success in the war now became measured by the number of acres of civilian housing and urban area destroyed. In March 9142 the British target Lubeck, a city with no industrial value but significant historical value,

(2)

(3)

(4)

10

was picked do to the large number of wooden framed buildings. (5) Germans respond with reprisal attacks on British historical sites which had heretofore been avoided. This leads the British to step up the pace

d)

Casablanca conference
(1) With no ability to invade the continent, British argue the only way to help the Russians is through strategic bombing. British also try to convince the Americans to abandon daylight precision bombing in favor of nighttime area bombing.

(2)

e)

Operation Gomorrah: Firebombing of Hamburg

(1) 3 day raid with US bombing during the day targeting industrial sites. They account for about 1% of damage. On the night of July 27/28 British area attacks kill 44,600. It seemed as though the whole of Hamburg was on fire from one end to the other and a huge column of smoke was towering well above is and we were at 20,000 feet. Temperatures in the city on the ground reached 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead boils, aluminum melts, wood explodes. Fire storm created a tornado of fire. Babies were torn from mothers arms by the high winds and sucked into the conflagration. Upon entering basement air-raid shelters would be rescuers found nothing but bones suspended in congealed fat. Woman and children were so charred as to be unrecognizable. Their brains tumbled from burst temples and their insides form the soft parts under the ribs. Small children lay like fried eels on the pavement. Some people sought relief form the intense heat by throwing themselves into canals. People heads s burned in the intense heat and died.

(2) (3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

11

(9)

To prevent people being able to run from fire, the bombers also dropped land mines in the mix of HE and incendiary. After the raid survivors were plagued by droves of rats grown strong by feeding on the corpses left unburied in the rubble.

(10)

f)

Dresden: February 1945

(1) A large city but with no industrial capabilities to speak of, it had become a large refugee center. Normal population of 650,000 was doubled with refugees. Also 26,000 British and American POWs. Deliberate firestorm stated. 1st wave of 250 bombers carried HE and incendiary. 3 hr. later 500 bombers w/ 650,000 incendiary bombs. 10 hours later 316 American bombers dropped 1 kiloton of HE, Incendiary and delayed action mines set to detonate when rubble was removed. Fighters strafed survivors trying to escape the fire. 70,000 - 150,000 killed. Bomber commanders Ira Eaker and Robert Saundby (CO of US and British bomber forces) accept 135,000 as best guess.

(2) (3) (4)

(5)

g) h)

Berlin, February 1945

(1) 27,000 killed in British firebomb attack.

At end of war, revulsion at what had occurred begins to grown,

(1) Churchill distances himself from Bomber Command by refusing to authorize campaign medals for the crews. Harris, commander of BC, leaves England for selfimposed exile in S. Africa.

(2)

F.

United States 1. Strategic bombing: Germany

a) Began, like British committed to daylight bombing of military and specific industrial targets. By end of the war they had largely given up on industrial bombing and shifted to firebombing civilians.

12

b)

Initial goals was to:

(1) (2) (3) (4) neutralize German Air Force: a military strategic goal. target power plants transportation resources oil facilities

c)

Initial policy towards Japan was different, Nov 15, 1941, before Pearl Harbor:
(1) General George Marshall (of the Marshall Plan for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize) We ll fight mercilessly. Flying fortresses will be dispatched immediately to set the paper cities of Japan on fire...The won be any hesitation about t bombing civilians it will be all-out.

d)

Through 1943, post Casablanca conference, US maintains policy of precision daylight bombing, but this begins to change.
(1) Raids against important German targets (bearing works) began to result in up to 20-30% casualty rates. These were seen as unsustainable, although after the war German leaders note that had the daylight bombing continued for just a short time longer it might have eventually achieved its goals. Staring in Nov 1943 switch to using radar to guide bombers, no longer relying solely on Norden bomb site. By October 1944 80% of bombing raids were conducted blind: area raids. By early 1945 Luftwaffe had been largely eliminated, most German cities of 50,000 or more had been destroyed, so they Americans switch gears again. (a) Project Clarion: a General Plan for Maximum Effort Attack against Transportation Targets. search undefended and unattacked (virgin) towns. Bomb and strafe at low altitude. This was expected to have a stupefying effect on morale

(2)

(3) (4)

(b) (c)

13

(d) (e)

Also felt it would teach Germans a lesson for the future. Roosevelt in late 1944: We have got to be tough on Germany, and I mean the German people not just the Nazis. We either have to castrate the German people or you have got to treat them in such a manner so they can t just go on reproducing people who want to continue the way they have in the past.

e)

By spring of 1945, running out of Targets. The 50 largest cities in Germany had all been targeted.
(1) (2) Standard raid was 1-4 kilotons. Many were as high as 10-12 kilotons. In March 1945, dropped 4.7 kilotons onto Essen, a target which had already been destroyed.

2.

US Strategic Bombing: Japan a) From the outset the US was interested in firebombing Japanese cities.
(1) Looked closely at what the British had accomplished.

b)

Early air commander, Hansel, reluctant to escalate to large scale attacks.

(1) US commanders believe that the air campaign has been too costly and has not reduced industrial output sufficiently. In fact, fighter plane production had dropped from 300 per month to 100.

(2)

c)

As a result, he is fired and Curtis LeMay replaces him

(1) (2) (3) LeMay believes that firebombing will prove to be a way to destroy Japans ability to carry on the war. Feb 1945 he executes experimental raid against Tokyo and Kobe with some success. Gave up pretense of using anything that would destroy machinery or any large structure. Switched completely to M-69 incendiary bombs.

14

(a)

weigh about 6 pounds, stored in clusters. When cluster is dropped, it splits open and sprays the bomblets over a large area. Designed to spread fire quickly and to be difficult to extinguish. Quite sophisticated devices. As the bomb passed through the roof of a house or factory, a delay fuse actuated, which after 3-5 seconds, detonated an ejection ignition charge. By this time the bomb would have come to rest, lying on its side or with its nose buried in the floor. At detonation, a TNT charge would explode, and magnesium particles would ignite the gasoline gel contained in a cloth sock. Unlike any other bomb, the explosion blew burning gel out of the tail of the casing and like a miniature cannon shot it as far as 100 feet. If the gel struck a combustible surface and was not extinguished it started an intense and persistent fire.

(b)

(c)

(4)

The big test: Tokyo, March 9-10.

(a) (b) The area selected was 84% residential. 800,000 bomblets would be dropped from 334 planes (2.4 kilotons of incendiary bombs). The goal of the attack was imply to set the target zone on fire...they succeeded. In the planes flying at 7-8,000 feet they could read the charts from the fires below so many people burned to death that the smell of burning flesh nauseated the crews flying above. Ground temperatures reached 1800 degrees. 28 mph surface winds pushed the fire along Canals literally boiled. Flames were hundreds of feet high. The wind from the fire reached close to 100 mph.

(c) (d) (e)

(f) (g) (h) (i)

15

(j)

Average estimate is that 130,000 people killed in 6 hours.

(5)

Next: The rest of Japan is targeted.

16

1 2 3 24 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

American City Chattanooga Evansville Ft. Wayne Cleveland Macon South Bend Butte Tuscon Little Rock Des Moines Long Beach Pontiac Knoxville Tulsa Oklahomoa City Middletown Madison Galveston Duluth Stockton Wilkse-Barre Richmond Hartford Topeka Baltimore Springfield Sioux Falls Sacrementoi Hkenosha None New York Lexington Salt Lake City Peoria Fort Worth Battle Creek Waterloo Wheeling Sioux City Toledo Waco San Jose Nashville Columbus Savannah Corpus Christi Los Angeles San Diego Miami Chicago Portland Charlotte Santa Fe Lincoln Grand Rapids Montgomery Saint Joeseph Davenport Greensboro Augusta Rochester spokane Omaha San Antonio Utica Jacksonville Cambridge

Japanese Toyama Fukui Tokushima Yokohama Fukuyama Kofu Tokuyama Kuwana Hitachi Gifu Okayama Mito Takamatsu Toyohashi Shizuoka Tsuriga Nagaoka Hacchioji Matsuyama Imabari Maebashi Kagoshima Hammamatsu Tsu Kobe Ichinomiya Isezaki Kochi Kumagaya Uwajima Tokyo Akashi Wakayama Himeji Sakai Hiratsuka Saga Chosi Utsunomiya Kure Numazu Shimazu Sasebo Ujiyamada Chiba Ogaki Nagoya Shimonoseki Momuta Osaka Kawasaki Yokkaichi Omura Okazaki Kumamoto Aomori Oita Miyazaki Miyakonojo Nobeioka Fukuoka Moji Sendai Yawata Ube Amagasaki Nishinomya

% Des 99 86 85 85 81 79 78 75 72 70 69 69 68 68 66 65 65 65 64 64 64 63 60 59 56 56 56 55 55 54 51 50 50 49 48 48 44 44 44 42 42 42 41 41 41 40 40 38 36 35 35 34 33 32 31 30 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 21 19 12

(6)

17

(7)

Over the course of roughly 30 days, 12 kilotons of incendiary bombs were dropped on Tokyo. (a) 57 sq. miles of the city were totally gutted, more than half of the 111 sq. miles total.

(8) (9)

2.8 kilotons of bombs whipped out 85% of Yokohama Osaka (size of Chicago) was 53% destroyed after 6.1 kilotons of bombs dropped.
By May, LeMay crews were dropping 100 s kilotons a month. In July they dropped 135 kilotons (this is the equivalent of .5 megatons nuclear weapons..

(10)

(11) How did the air crews react?

(a)

Official line:
(i) The phenomenal success of our new tactics had precipitously salvaged the morale and fighting spirit of our crews by providing a degree of battle success proportionate to the effort expended.

(b)

General Thomas Powell, an observer at the time:

(i) The greatest single disaster incurred by any enemy in military history, There were more casualties than in any other single military action in the history of the world.

d)

The Atomic bomb. (1) August 1945 following the successful test of a single device in NM,
(a) (b) the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 3 days later a second device was dropped on Nagasaki.

(2)

The attack results were quite similar to the fire bombing.

(a) The level of destruction was the same.
18

(b)

The effects on humans the same.

(3)

Bombing experts believed that the same results could have been achieved using 2.1 kilotons of conventional bombs.
(a) (b) How is this possible? Differences between conventional and atomic weapons

(4)

To the military (many of them anyway), the atomic weapons were simply a different way of delivering the same effect.
(a) US strategic bombers drop 4.5 megatons of conventional bombs on Germany (20-30 megatons fission weapons) Destroy 115 cities in Japan and Germany. We do not have the capabilities to do this with nuclear weapons until late 1950 s.

(b)

(5)

Two differences
(a) Time involved: with the incendiary attacks, it might take several hours to destroy a city, with atomic weapons moments radiation poisoning. the psychological effects of surviving the blast but not knowing if radiation sickness or leukemia would kill was devastating for many.

(b)

V.

A conceptual framework: Factors which facilitate the mass killing of civilians

A. Psychological factors 1. Dehumanization of victim a) Leads to:
(1) As a result of the dehumanizing of Japanese, mass publics in US were far more accepting of, or demanding of obliteration bombing in the Asian theatre than in Europe

b)

In US we see this through propaganda about Japan and Germany

19

(1) (2)

In Germany Jew and Slavs and other portrayed as sub-human In America, newspapers declared the war a war about race (sounds just like what the Nazis were doing in Europe).

c)

We see this logic in the internment of Japanese citizens:

(1) General John DeWitt: Japanese Americans, being of a different race, posed a serious threat that would continue until they are wiped off the face of the map. Fighting Japs is not like fighting normal human beings. We are not dealing with humans as we know them. We are dealing with something primitive. Our troops have the right view of the Japs. They regard them as vermin. Admiral Halsey, Commander US South Pacific Force.

(2)

d)

Truman had racist views going back a ways:

(1) In a letter to his wife in which he also proposes marriage: I think one man is as good as another so long as he honest and decent and not a nigger or a s chinaman. Uncle Will says that the Lord made a white man of dust, a nigger from mud, then threw up what was left and it came down a chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is race prejudice I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion that Negroes ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia, and white men in Europe and America.

2.

Euphemistic language to describe for domestic audiences:

a) b) c) d) e) f) deportation to death camps was called evacuation to the east killing: special action deliberate firebombing of refugee cities: strategic bombing destruction of housing and occupants of worker villages: dehousing in Gulf war bombing raids: sorties killing of civilians: collateral damage (sounds like something you need for a loan)

20

3.

Belief that killing others will help healing one self: Auschwitz doctors, camp 370 doctors
a) By exterminating others, the ensure the survival of their own, as such they become saviors: what kind of view of the other does this require? Leaders in Britain had all experienced the western front, they looked for a way to do what they had done then but with less cost to themselves. Auschwitz survivor who was a physician asked Fritz Klein, an SS doctor there, how he could reconcile what he was doing with the Hippocratic oath, his reply: Out of respect for human life, I would remove a purulent appendix from a diseased body. The Jew is the purulent appendix in the body of Europe.

b)

c)

B.

Organizational facilitating factors: Bureaucracy 1. Bureaucratic regimes smooth the way: they create rules and norms of following rules, even when the rules seem silly. Bureaucracies also increase the efficiency of the killing
a) b) c) d) to kill more than a million people is a major task: if bombing: huge supply apparatus the holocaust in Germany required enormous resources to simply move the people through the system. also create momentumhow? Makes it harder to stop because it becomes a routine.

2.

3.

Create hierarchical structures which condition people and leave them with reduced sense of personal responsibility Division of labor:
a) bureaucracies break down complex task into smaller simpler ones. Who then is responsible? The train driver that delivers the people to the death camp, the man that loads the bombs? the guy that drives the fuel trucks?

4.

5.

Organizational loyalty
a) people tend to become loyal to their organizations: like the Kiwanis club, except that instead of providing meals on wheels they are involved killing.

21

b) c)

can help provide job security career advancement (1) LeMay: General Arnold (commander if US Air Forces) needed results. Larry Norstadt had made that very plain. In effect he said to me: You go ahead and get results with the B-29. If you don t get results you be fired. If you don get results, ll t also, there never be any strategic air forces in the ll Pacific. If you don get results, it will mean t eventually a mass amphibious invasion of Japan, to cost probably a half a million more American Lives.

d)

US Air Force hoped to demonstrate that the strategic bomber could win the war so that the air force would be recognized as a separate branch following the war.

6.

Amoral rationality
a) a deliberate goal of bureaucracies is to focus on efficiency and not morality, to remove the judgment of the individual and replace it with the rule to be followed.

C.

Scientific and Technological Factors 1. Scientific rationalization

a) b) c) we become willing to defer to scientists scientists in many societies have taken on the role that religious leaders once played, a hallmark goodscience is its divorce from normative hypothesizing and focusing on empirical ones.

2.

Technical distancing.
a) b) c) d) e) Technology provides the distance factor bombers were thousand of feet above: world seems very remote in Germany, the killers were drooping cyanide into a box. no longer have to stick a bayonet into someone stomach to kill them. In WWI artillery allowed for long range attacks.

VI.

Differences between strategic bombing campaign and holocaust: A. German soldiers in killing camps at no risk to selves.

22

1. 2. 3.

In bomber units risk was quite high, particularly at outset of campaign. Americans killed in airwar. In 1944 for every 1,000 men serving on bomber crews, only 216 could be expected to finish 25 missions. On British side its was just as bad. 125,000 people served in British bomber command: of these 56,000 were killed.

B.

Another important difference relates to the intent of the killing.

1. 2. 3. The extermination of Jews was an end into itself. If Germany had won the war, it is likely that the killing would have spread to other areas. For US and Britain, the firebombing of cities was a means by which to induce the civilians in the enemies country to act against their own government. The intent was not to kill all Germans and Japanese, but to simply kill enough of them to induce the rest to force their governments to give up the fight. a) b) This places an enormous onus on personal versus collective responsibility Basically it says that unless you are willing to die to over through your government we will try to kill you.

4.

C.

Nature of the victims

1. 2. 3. Jewish and other victims of the Nazi genocide had done nothing to threaten the national interests of Germany Germany and Japan were the military aggressors against the allies. Britain and the US began the war with strong and clear policy against deliberate bombing of enemy civilian population centers, but military atrocities committed by Germany and Japan helped create a process of the erosion of moral constraints.

VII. Conclusions
A. Total war facilitates genocide.
1. A variety of factors help eliminate the friction that Clausewitz knew would prevent general war from escalating to total war. In the 20th century, technology and the growth of the state has facilitated or increased the risk of total war/genocide occurring. The US committed horrible acts of violence against both the Germans and Japanese.

2.

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B. C.

WWII was not a good war The threshold or difference between conventional incendiary bombs and fission nuclear weapons is not great. 1. Similarities:
a) b) Whole cities can be destroyed in a number of hours. hundreds of thousands of civilians can be killed easily

2.

The difference comes down to

a) b) The matter of hours required to deliver the punishment and The potentially lingering effects of radiation.

3.

What caused the Japanese to quit?

a) b) c) Conventional wisdom claims it was the shock of the Abomb. Let review carefully why Japan quite to come to some s conclusions about the use of atomic weapons. Conventional wisdom hinges on civilian vulnerability and preferences: (1) (2) (3) d) (1) (2) Fear of future bombing Declining morale as a result of firebombing clearing the way for the emperor to remain. All cities in Japan had already been destroyed (H and N had been held back as targets for the A-bombs). Morale not declining to the point where it mattered (a) Civilians put no pressure on govt. (and had not in the past - a stoic society). (i) Prior to this stage we had done terrible damage even in the absence of fighter support: (a) (b) (c) (d) (ii) 22 million home less (30%) 2.2 million casualties 1 million civilian. dead .78 million battle deaths

Counters to the conventional wisdom:

With the A-bomb, 80k die in Hiroshima, 35k die in Nagasaki

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(iii)

following drop of bombs, no additional civilian pressure (a) no one knows

(b) (c)

Industrial workers still working Army discipline levels still high (as compared to Germany and Italy at end of war and Soviet Army at outset). US never clearly states that keeping the emperor will be OK until after the govt. indicates a willingness to submit. (i) US decides to drop (and does) 2nd bomb after Japanese govt. decides to quit

(d)

e)

If it not civilian vulnerability and military morale, s then what was the key? (1) (2) Military Vulnerability 3 things occur in summer of that make military 45 vulnerability readily apparent to military decision makers (a) Sea blockade was finally complete (most important) (i) Oil (a) (b) (c) (ii) In 1941 JPN has 40 mil bbl oil stockpile last oil in March 45, stockpile then 3.7 mil bbl by July oil reserves down to 800k bbl

Industrial production drops precipitously in early 1945. (a) By June on average down to 20% of peak, far below replacement rates.

(b)

Fall of Okinowa means that much of Japan is now within range of US fighter aircraft (i) we can impose costs at will and at little cost to us now.

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(ii) (c)

we can easily support a beach invasion of the main islands

Rapid collapse of troops in Manchuria on August 9 (i) Troops on home islands were not the best, they had been reserved for the defensive perimeter When Soviets invade Manchuria they go against the best Japanese infantry divisions Blow through them: they had no food and little ammunition.

(ii)

(iii) (d)

Final estimates of casualties for US now quite low: (i) (ii) 20k KIA for Honshu 15k KIA for Kyushu

f)

There were 3 groups that might influence the decision to quit: (1) Civilian govt. (a) (2) They had no influence but had previously decided that JPN should surrender reasonably important, but also, prior to dropping of A-bomb had decided that JPN should negotiate a surrender Prior to A-bomb had begun to debate the need for a negotiated peace Had planned to use Soviets as intermediary (i) (ii) when Soviets invade this clearly won work t realize how weak the military really is

Emperor (a)

(3)

Military leaders (a) (b)

g)

3 Factors that mattered: (1) (2) (3) Naval blockade invasion threat Soviet attack

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h)

All 3 occur regardless of civilian punishment (fire bombing campaign) and dropping of A-bomb (1) 1 million civilians killed for nothing Also, civilians have no say in govt. decision making and could not so, (1) killing any number of civilians wouldn have t mattered regardless of pace of killing them.

i)

4.

Why then did we drop them?

a) What did Truman believe. (1) (2) b) what the military told him that 500,000 Americans might be saved by dropping the bomb Air Force part of army during war USAF wants to be a separate service branch. (a) if all the Air Force can do is support army (tactical air command -- TAC) and lift army soldiers around (MAC) then it will be difficult to convince congress to pay for new service if AF can show THEY win the war (SAC) then they can argue they are an independent force and as such should be allowed to be independent.

organizational reasons (1) (2)

(b)

c) d)

several billion dollars spent developing the bomb, they want to see if it will work Military anticipating the cold war, want to demonstrate that it works (1) Two types of bombs dropped, (a) uranium gun weapon (Little Boy) (i) The gun was a 3" anti-aircraft barrel six feet long that had been bored out to 4" to accommodate the bullet. It weighed about 450 kg, and had a breech block weighing 34 kg. Cordite, a conventional artillery smokeless powder, was used as the

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propellant, and the velocity achieved by the bullet was 300 m/sec. (ii) Little Boy was a terribly unsafe weapon design. Once the propellant was loaded, anything that ignited it would cause a full yield explosion. For this reason "Eke" Parsons, acting as weaponeer, decided (without authorization) to place the cordite in the gun after take-off in case a crash and fire occurred. It is possible that a violent crash (or accidental drop) could have driven the bullet into the target even without the propellant causing anything from a fizzle (a few tons yield) to a full yield explosion. Little Boy also presented a hazard if it fell into water. Since it contained nearly three critical masses with only air space separating them, water entering the weapon would have acted as a moderator, possibly making the weapon critical. A high yield explosion would not have occurred, but a rapid melt-down or explosive fizzle and possible violent dispersal of radioactive material could have resulted. This was the gadget that had been detonated in NM. For use in combat, each Fatman bomb required assembly almost from scratch - a demanding and time consuming job. Assembly of a Fatman bomb was (and may still be) the most complex field preparation operation for any weapon ever made.

(iii)

(iv)

(b)

Plutonium implosion (Fat Man) (i) (ii)

(2)

Want to see if, in practice, one work better than the other,

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(a) (b)

plutonium will prove to be easier to manufacture. and you need less. (i) (ii) 12 pounds of plutonium provided 22 kt of explosions. 141 pounds of uranium 235 provided 14 kt of explosions.

e) f) g)

demonstration to the Soviets some believed they really would hasten the end of the war don want to give credit to the Soviets which would allow t them to expand their sphere of influence in Asia

D.

Japan is treated differently that Germany from outset in part as a result of racism. 1. Why, after war are the Japanese not held accountable for the atrocities against SE Asia and China?
a) b) China becomes the enemy institutional racism...people do not identify with the suffering of Malays, Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans, etc.

E.

The fear of destruction that fueled the cold war was real, palpable, and rational. 1. Next: World War II Continued, The Cold War.

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