World War II

Dear Subscribers,

Human rights certainly did exist, but so did the right of national self-defense. Should we allow a ruthless enemy's war industries to remain inviolate because those resources are located in cities? Yes, many "innocent civilians" live in those cities but also many industrial workers live there. It is an impossible choice -- incinerate industrial cities or allow unfettered production of war material that will be used against our own people?

War makes war criminals.

 Western Galilee College -Holocaust Studies Program

Online conversations with Holocaust Researchers, hosting

Prof. Christopher Browning: Revisiting the Perpetrators : A look at the origins and post-publication history of Ordinary Men
Wednesday 15.07.2020, 19:00 Israel time and 12:00 AM East coast time USA.
Participation is free but registration is needed here:

 Western Galilee College -Holocaust Studies Program

Virtual conversations with Holocaust Researchers, hosting

Prof. Christopher Browning: Revisiting the Perpetrators : A look at the origins and post-publication history of Ordinary Men
Wednesday 15.07.2020, 19:00 Israel time and 12:00 AM East coast time USA.
Participation is free but registration is needed here:

Ralph, among a few other villains Curtis LeMay and Bomber Harris were indeed war criminals . There was never a legitimate rational for incinerating whole cities of civilians. . . Human rights exist and did then as well.

I admit that I know little of the rationale for the Japanese bombing of Chinese cities, but there should be little confusion about the Western Allies' rationale for bombing German and Japanese cities. One of the most effective practitioners of these bombing campaigns, Gen. Curtis LeMay, admitted to a reporter late in the war that what he was doing could be considered a war crime, should the Axis win the war. But the overriding rationale was legitimate -- disruption of war industries.

Most histories of the bombing campaigns of World War II look at either the war in Europe--the German Blitz followed by the long Anglo-American assault on Germany--or the American air raids on Japanese cities. Sheldon Garon, a Princeton historian of Japan, recently wrote an article for Past&Present on "The Transnational Destruction of Cities." It is behind a paywall, but he has now posted an essay on this topic on the journal's blog. It notes that:   "By the late 1930s, Japan’s naval air force emerged as the leading practitioner of the long-distance bombing of cities in China.

The Holocaust Studies  program of Western Galilee College is initating a series of online conversations with leading Holocaust Researchers. Our first conversation will be with Prof Dieter Pohl who will speak about 'Some Basic Problems of Holocaust Research'. Talk and discussion will be on Wednesday 24.06.2020 18:00 Israel time and 11:00 AM East coast time USA registration link below.

Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.