ABSTRACT
World War II witnessed an astonishing breakdown of restraints on the aerial bombardment of civilian populations. Although the Axis powers were the first to unleash their bombers against civilian targets in China (1937), Poland (1939), and Great Britain (1940–41), Germany, Italy, and Japan soon reaped the whirlwind. The practice of bombing cities, portrayed before the war by the democratic powers as having “a special place in the hearts of fascists” ( Sherry 1987: 71), was perfected by the British and American air forces at places like Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo, culminating in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The Allied bombing of Germany killed at least 305,000 noncombatants; another 330,000 to 900,000 perished under American bombs in Japan ( Pape 1996: 272; Schaffer 1985: 148). What explains this breakdown of restraints on the war in the air and the resultant civilian carnage? More generally, why do states violate the principle of noncombatant immunity and adopt military strategies during war that target and kill enemy civilians?
