(Untitled)

[benchilada]

THINGS THEY DON'T TEACH US IN OUR HISTORY BOOKS:

The actual anniversary was yesterday.

65 years ago the United States committed a war crime against Japan by firebombing ordinary citizens in Tokyo.

100,000 civilians died by explosion and fire, the largest number from any attack during the entirety of the war.

I wish I could be surprised that war

Comments

[ankh_f_n_khonsu]

100,000 die every year from 'properly' prescribed medications.

The tragedy isn't historic. :(

[ankh_f_n_khonsu]

Oh, and if you're so big on history, why don't I ever see you popping up in my This Day in History series?

[benchilada]

Don't go reducing the horror of one incident by comparing it to another. >:|

Also, events in my life have been keeping my from reading pretty-much ANYBODY'S LJ. :(

[ankh_f_n_khonsu]

I don't think it reduces the horror at all. I think we should be confronted with our role in supporting the perpetuation of such tragedies. I think people would often rather think tragedies like this are historical and/or rare, and this serves the interests of those in power, who know otherwise.

Yes, I've noticed your posting has been inconsistent, but didn't read anything into it...

[locopuff]

The US pretty much firebombed most urban areas of Japan. Most major cities were at least half destroyed.

McNamara actually knew the exact percentages for each city and was able to recite them from memory in "The Fog of War". He seemed disgusted.

http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/fire.html

[radiumhead]

So? We also nuked 2 of their cities, I've heard. What's your point?

[benchilada]

Seriously?

[radiumhead]

Well, yeah.

If we hadn't nuked them first, twice, maybe I wouldve been suprised.

[benchilada]

I don't think I'm totally following. Are you just saying that you're not surprised, or that it doesn't seem significant to you?

I guess I'm fascinated by the fact that only one person I've spoken to about this in the past two days had even heard about it.

We always talk about the Holocaust, the slaughters by Stalin, sometimes we hear about how Mao killed more than either Hitler or Stalin, but we never hear about attacks we did simply to kill 100,000 civilians.

[calzstarheart]

this only serves to remind me of why my position on war is that it should be fought with knives swords and armor only. no guns, no bombs, no catapults even.

I'd be a complete pacifist, but humans are too violent to not fight.
ugh.

[pure_doxyk]

Why is a knife or sword more humane than a gun?

Why not, if you're aiming for humane fighting, declare no weapons at all, and make people duke it out empty-handed? (It would certainly re-popularize martial arts. But not really in a good way.)

[calzstarheart]

it's not more humane, it just requires the people doing the fighting to get closer and actually have some sort of relationship with the person their fighting against.

Martial arts are great... but the problem then is that technically you're carrying weapons on you at all times which could develop into some sort of legal issue i think. Weapons show a clear intent.

[radiumhead]

I dont know if its more humane, but it slows things down. It probably takes a lot longer to kill 60,000 people with knives than it does with a bomb.

And at least the victims would have half a chance of fighting back or escaping.

[argent_aurora]

I have heard about the firebombing of Japan during my independent studies of WWII as well as in my high school AP US History class and during my college class on Cold War Policy (it was in the background information we had to read). I think that most people who have never heard about it have either never taken an advanced history class or didn't care. Unfortunately, it often seems to fall into the latter category.