Curtis LeMay, the American General who led the systematic carpet bombing of Japan for 14 months, said that 'if the US had lost the war, he and his fellow officers would have been tried as war criminals'. (Approximate quote.) Robert McNamara, who served as a Captain under LeMay, performed statistical analysis of the efficiency of the US bombing. He later went on to serve as Secretary of Defense throughout most of the Vietnam War. He agreed with LeMay's comment. The documentary "The Fog of War" was quite an eye opener for me.
Two take-aways that have stuck with me were:
1. The above comment about war criminals.
2. The total destruction from the two atomic bombs was substantially less destructive than the "conventional" bombs dropped in the previous 14 months. The estimates of lives lost from the atomic bombs are 129,000-246,000. The estimates of lives lost from the conventional bombing of 67 Japanese cities leading up to the end of the war are 241,000-900,000.
In addition to loss of life, the physical destruction of Japanese infrastructure of Hiroshima and Nagasaki pales in comparison to the toll taken on the rest of the country as the following chart shows:
Effect of Conventional Bombing on Japanese Cities
The table below notes the effect of conventional bombing campaigns on Japanese cities.
| City Name | % Area Destroyed |
|---|---|
| Yokohama | 58.0 |
| Tokyo | 51.0 |
| Toyama | 99.0 |
| Nagoya | 40.0 |
| Osaka | 35.1 |
| Nishinomiya | 11.9 |
| Shimonoseki | 37.6 |
| Kure | 41.9 |
| Kobe | 55.7 |
| Omuta | 35.8 |
| Wakayama | 50.0 |
| Kawasaki | 36.2 |
| Okayama | 68.9 |
| Yawata | 21.2 |
| Kagoshima | 63.4 |
| Amagasaki | 18.9 |
| Sasebo | 41.4 |
| Moji | 23.3 |
| Miyakonojo | 26.5 |
| Nobeoka | 25.2 |
| Miyazaki | 26.1 |
| Ube | 20.7 |
| Saga | 44.2 |
| Imabari | 63.9 |
| Matsuyama | 64.0 |
| Fukui | 86.0 |
| Tokushima | 85.2 |
| Sakai | 48.2 |
| Hachioji | 65.0 |
| Kumamoto | 31.2 |
| Isesaki | 56.7 |
| Takamatsu | 67.5 |
| Akashi | 50.2 |
| Fukuyama | 80.9 |
| Aomori | 30.0 |
| Okazaki | 32.2 |
| Oita | 28.2 |
| Hiratsuka | 48.4 |
| Tokuyama | 48.3 |
| Yokkaichi | 33.6 |
| Ujiyamada | 41.3 |
| Ogaki | 39.5 |
| Gifu | 63.6 |
| Shizuoka | 66.1 |
| Himeji | 49.4 |
| Fukuoka | 24.1 |
| Kochi | 55.2 |
| Shimizu | 42.0 |
| Omura | 33.1 |
| Chiba | 41.0 |
| Ichinomiya | 56.3 |
| Nara | 69.3 |
| Tsu | 69.3 |
| Kuwana | 75.0 |
| Toyohashi | 61.9 |
| Numazu | 42.3 |
| Choshi | 44.2 |
| Kofu | 78.6 |
| Utsunomiya | 43.7 |
| Mito | 68.9 |
| Sendai | 21.9 |
| Tsuruga | 65.1 |
| Nagaoka | 64.9 |
| Hitachi | 72.0 |
| Kumagaya | 55.1 |
| Hamamatsu | 60.3 |
| Maebashi | 64.2 |
I highly recommend this brief clip from "The Fog of War".
Also, after watching American Sniper, I thought it was more anti-war than pro-US flag waving, although there was certainly a fair amount of that.
