Did we not kill thousands of civilians by dropping bombs on them as in GERMANY AND JAPAN?
‘Did we not kill thousands of civilians of dropping bombs on them as in Germany and Japan?’ If ‘we’ refers to the Allies, then it’s a fact that the Allied bombing of Germany, Japan, and many other countries (including pro-Allied countries under Axis occupation) killed hundreds of thousands of civilians (including many civilians who were not citizens of any Axis country). In some French towns, many more civilians were killed by the Allied bombing than by the Germans, and most of the French survivors, while thankful for their liberation, were, considering their losses, hardly in a mood to celebrate it. With regard to the moral questions about the Allied bombing, the principal concerns have been about RAF Bomber Command’s policy (led by Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris) of area bombing against German cities and the USAAF’s atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I lack the space to discuss the many issues about these questions. I would like to note, however, that one should not assume that the a
