The '''Bombing of Japan''' by the [[United States ]] in [[World War II ]] was a war-winning strategy, but it raises moral issues.
*see also [[History of Japan]]
==Strategic Bombing of Japan==
Army Chief of Staff [[George C. Marshall]] explained American strategy three weeks before Pearl Harbor:<ref>Robert L. Sherrod "Memorandum for David W. Hulburd, Jr." November 15, 1941. ''The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland et al. vol. 2, ''We Cannot Delay, July 1, 1939-December 6, 1941'' (1986), #2-602 pp. 676-681. Marshall made the statement to a secret press conference. For the full text goto [http://www.marshallfoundation.org/Database.htm and search for "mercilessly"]. See also Alan Armstrong, ''Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor'' (2006) [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=45ilPaG1NHoC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=%22preparing+for+an+offensive+war+against+Japan%22&source=bl&ots=wfYP1UfZJE&sig=pLtwZADUf6iFSqP0ZqgYEGaTesg&hl=en&ei=WUIhStajGJnGtAP5ofSWBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6 excerpt and text search]</ref>
:"We are preparing for an offensive war against Japan, whereas the Japs believe we are preparing only to defend the Phillipines. ...We have 35 Flying Fortresses already there—the largest concentration anywhere in the world. Twenty more will be added next month, and 60 more in January....If war with the Japanese does come, we'll fight mercilessly. Flying fortresses will be dispatched immediately to set the paper cities of Japan on fire. There wont be any hesitation about bombing civilians—it will be all-out."
When war began the Philippine airbases were quickly lost and the [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] lacked the needed range to hit Japan. American strategy then focused on getting forward airbases close enough to Japan to use the very-long-range [[B-29]] bomber, then in development. At first the B-29's were stationed in China and made raids in 1944; the [[logistics ]] made [[China ]] an impossible base. Finally, in summer 1944, the U.S. won the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] and captured islands that were in range.
==Operations==
The flamability of Japan's large cities, and the concentration of munitions production there, made strategic bombing the war-winning weapon. Two months before Pearl Harbor Chinese leader [[Chiang Kai-shek]] proposed sending Flying Fortresses over Tokyo and Osaka, "whose paper and bamboo houses would go up in smoke if subjected to bombing raids." Massive efforts (costing $4.5 billion dollars) to establish air bases in China failed. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants broke rocks with little hammers and dug drainage ditches by hand. Shipping supplies around the world to equip the bases was almost impossible, and when some bases were ready in 1944 the Japanese Army simply moved overland and captured them. The Marianas, captured in June 1944, gave a close secure base, and the B-29 gave the Americans the weapon they needed. The [[B-29]] represented the highest achievement of traditional (pre-jet) aeronautics. Its four 2,200 horsepower Wright R-3350 supercharged engines could lift four tons of bombs 3,500 miles at 33,000 feet (high above Japanese flak or fighters). Computerized fire-control mechanisms made its 13 guns exceptionally lethal against fighters. However, the systematic raids that began in June, 1944, were unsatisfactory, because the AAF had learned too much in Europe; it overemphasized self-defense.
==LeMay's Tactics==
==Why the Atomic Bomb?==
Why did the US drop the atomic bomb? Historians have debated the issue over the years. On the one hand, Japan was defeated and many civilian leaders wanted to reach conditional surrender terms. After sifting through the records and cross-examining Japanese leaders, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey concluded in 1946 that Japan would have surrendered by the end of 1945 because of the devastation wrought by the sea/air blockade, the incessant B-29 and carrier raids. The Survey lends weight to the conclusion, after the war, that the atomic bomb did not have to be used to gain victory. Some "revisionists" have suggested Hiroshima was supposed to be an unmistakable signal to Stalin to play along diplomatically with the Americans who planned to rule the postwar world. Others have wondered whether some sort of demonstration explosion could have been made, in order to frighten Tokyo without killing so many people. The option was considered, but only two bombs were available. Truman decided instead to drop millions of leaflets upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki warning people to leave immediately, and at the [[Potsdam Conference ]] in mid-July 1945, he explicitly warned Japan it must surrender immediately or be hit with terrible force.
The civilian government in Tokyo wanted peace on conditional terms, but that was impossible because of Roosevelt's policy of "unconditional" surrender, and because the civilians did not control Japan's decisions—the Imperial Army did (in the name of the Emperor). It is often assumed that the atomic bombs caused Japan to finally surrender. However, others point to the declaration of war by the Soviet Union who, invaded Manchuria, and crushed the Japanese Army there. Thus ending Japan's feeble hopes for a negotiated peace. However, in reply, other historians have noted that the Soviet Union did not declare war on Japan until August 8, 1945; two days after the first atomic bomb had been dropped.<ref>Sadao Asada, "The Shock of the Atomic Bomb and Japan's Decision to Surrender: a Reconsideration." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 1998 67(4): 477-512. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3641184 in Jstor]</ref> It was a last-minute grab for the spoils of war. It is known that after Hiroshima and the invasion of Manchuria the army and navy still wanted to fight on, while the civilians wanted to give up. The decisive move was the unprecedented intervention of Emperor Hirohito, who ordered negotiations to be opened after the second atomic bomb had been dropped. Even then a small number of Imperial officers tried to stage a coup by occupying the palace grounds. They planned to not allow the broadcast of Hirohito's order; however, their actions failed. With Roosevelt gone, the Americans redefined "unconditional" to allow continuance of the Emperor. On August 15, 1945, Hirohito then broadcast an order to the nation and its armed forces to surrender, which was obeyed by all but a few who carried out futile last minute suicide attacks which failed. Until that day, the Japanese military leaders were still making their preparations for resisting the expected Allied invasion of the home islands.<ref>Wheeler, Keith. "The Fall of Japan" (1983)</ref>
===Total Mobilization of Civilians===
In Japan, total mobilization had been declared as early as 1938 (when Japan was fighting China): "We must mobilize our entire resources, both physical and spiritual; it is not enough merely to provide sufficient munitions."<ref>Quoted in Conrad Totman, [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=UJLtPR_gMtsC&pg=PA435&lpg=PA435&dq=%22entire+resources,+both+physical+and+spiritual%22&source=web&ots=j1M8y-kwVm&sig=Gv7d1URKUV7U2TkQNtzXK0nhNrw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result ''History of Japan'' (2000) online p. 435]</ref> Civilians were more tightly organized on behalf of the state than in any other nation, and American policy makers concluded there were no peaceable civilians in Japan. The AAF policy said that deliberate killing of innocent civilians was immoral, but that in Germany and Japan all workers "voluntary or involuntary" were assisting the enemy and should accept the risks "which must be the lot of any individual who participates directly in the war effort of a belligerent nation.<ref>Crane, [httphttps://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0700611037/ref=sib_dp_srch_bod?v=search-inside&keywords=+must+be+the+lot+of+any+individual&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=Go%21# ''Bombs, Cities, and Civilians'' p. 45 online]</ref>
====Revenge====
===Basic surveys===
* Craven, Wesley Frank and J. L. Cate. ''The Army Air Forces in World War II'' (1949), vol 1-5 is the official, very thorough history of strategy and operations in Europe and Pacific [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/ online edition]
* Gordin, Michael D. ''Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War'' (2007) 209 pages [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=N7eq7AgZKokC&dq=Jones,+Vincent+C.+%27%27Manhattan:+The+Army+and+the+Bomb%27%27 excerpt and text search]
* Haulman, Daniel L. ''Hitting Home: The Air Offensive Against Japan,'' (1998) [http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/hittinghome/ online edition]
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan'' (2004) [httphttps://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/080785607X/ref=sib_dp_pop_ex/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&p=S00L#reader-link online excerpt]
===Atomic Bomb & Surrender of Japan===
* Alperowitz, Gar. ''Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam: The Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with Soviet Power.'' (1995), New Left version hostile to US
* Allen, Thomas B. and Norman Polmar. ''Code-Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan-And Why Truman Dropped the Bomb'' (1995)
* Arens, Mark P. "Amphibious Corps Planning for Operation Olympic and the Role of Intelligence in Support of Planning." (1996), Marine Corps plans for landing on Kyushu [httphttps://fas.org/irp/eprint/arens/ online edition]
* Bernstein, Barton. "Eclipsed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Early Thinking About Tactical Nuclear Weapons," ''International Security'' (Spring 1991) 149-173 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-2889(199121)15%3A4%3C149%3AEBHANE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P in JSTOR]
* Bernstein, Barton F. "The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered." ''Foreign Affairs'', 74 (Jan-Feb 1995) 135-52.
* Edoin, Hoito. ''The Night Tokyo Burned: The Incendiary Campaign against Japan'' (1988), Japanese viewpoint
* Gordin, Michael D. ''Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War'' (2007) 209 pages [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=N7eq7AgZKokC&dq=Jones,+Vincent+C.+%27%27Manhattan:+The+Army+and+the+Bomb%27%27 excerpt and text search]
* Haulman, Daniel L. ''Hitting Home: The Air Offensive Against Japan,'' (1998) [http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/hittinghome/ online edition]
* Holley, I. B. ed. ''Hiroshima After Forty Years'' (1992)
* Spector, Ronald. ''Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan'' (1985)
* Ralph, William W. "Improvised Destruction: Arnold, LeMay, and the Firebombing of Japan," ''War in History'', Vol. 13, No. 4, 495-522 (2006) [http://wih.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/4/495 online at Sage]
* Rhodes, Richard. ''The Making of the Atomic Bomb'' (1986), good overview [httphttps://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/0684813785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215061998&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]* Rotter, Andrew J. ''Hiroshima: The World's Bomb'' (2008) [httphttps://www.amazon.com/Hiroshima-Worlds-Making-Modern-World/dp/0192804375/ref=pd_ys_ir_all_23?pf_rd_p=258372101&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=list&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0W95DABP8AZ017RV502B excerpt and text search]
* Sherry, Michael. ''The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon'' (1987), important study 1930s-1960s
* Skates, John. ''The Invasion of Japan'' (1994), excellent military history of the greatest non-battle of all time
* Bundy, McGeorge. ''Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years'' (1988)
* Feis, Herbert. ''Japan Subdued: The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the Pacific'' (1961), pro-Truman
* Malloy, Sean L. ''Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan'' (2008) [httphttps://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Tragedy-Stimson-Decision-Against/dp/0801446546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214420530&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morison, Elting E. ''Turmoil and Tradition: A Study of the Life and Times of Henry L. Stimson'' (1960)
* Newman, Robert P. "Hiroshima and the Trashing of Henry Stimson" ''The New England Quarterly,'' Vol. 71, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 5-32 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/366722 in JSTOR]
* Walker, J. Samuel. "The Decision to Drop the Bomb: A Historiographical Update," ''Diplomatic History'' 14 (1990) 97-114. Especially useful.
* Walker, J. Samuel. ''Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan'' (2004) [httphttps://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/080785607X/ref=sib_dp_pop_ex/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&p=S00L#reader-link online excerpt]
===Primary sources===