On the Firebombing of Tokyo

Must Read: The Firebombing of Tokyo: Seventy years ago today, the United States needlessly killed almost 100,000 people in a single air raid over Tokyo.

“Killing Japanese didn’t bother me very much at that time . . . I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.” - Gen. Curtis LeMay

As Howard Zinn put it in his final speech before he died:

Gen. Curtis LeMay

"This idea of good wars helps justify other wars which are obviously awful, obviously evil. And though they’re obviously awful — I’m talking about Vietnam, I’m talking about Iraq, I’m talking about Afghanistan, I’m talking about Panama, I’m talking about Grenada, one of our most heroic of wars — the fact that you can have the historic experience of good wars creates a basis for believing, well, you know, there’s such a thing as a good war, and maybe you can find, oh, parallels between the good wars and this war, even though you don’t understand this war.

But, oh, yes, the parallels. Saddam Hussein is Hitler. That makes it clear. We have to fight against him. To not fight in the war means surrender, like Munich. There are all the analogies. . . .You compare something to World War II, you immediately infuse it with goodness."