I agree with stuntman
The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acts of terrorism. The US did not aim for military targets. They just wanted to "scare the stuff out of Japan" Hundreds of thousands of civilians were either killed or mutilated. The civilians suffered from the after-effects of the radiations for generations.
The use of weapons of mass destruction violated the
Hague convention of 1907, specifically these two articles:
Article 25 of Section IV
- "The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited."
Article 27 of Section IV
- "In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes."
The bombings also violated the
Fourth Geneva Convention. It was not adopted untill 1949, but it justifies that this was in fact terrorism, seen from a modern perspective.
Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.
Saying that dropping TWO nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary to win the war is complete nonsense. At the time being, the US was far superior to Japan. If american bombers would have continued bombing military targets with conventional bombs, the war would've been over within a few weeks.
...
That being said, this wasn't the only time the US was involved in what would be called terrorism during WW2.
The carpet bombing of Dresden, Hamburg and Pforzheim with incendiary bombs caused devastating firestorms which destroyed almost everything. The whole cities were litterally burning. Civilian casualties were 25.000, 50.000 and 18.000 respectively.
Those bombings were done by the RAF and the USAAF in no more than 3 days in a row. For comparison, the "Blitz" over London killed no more than 40.000 civilians in more than half a year!!
