War: World War II

Declining Support in Both the U.S. and Japan for America's Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Source: Pew Research Center

Tags: violence , war/military , ethics, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, laws of war, military sociology, sidgwick's proportionality rule, sociology of war, social justice, world war II, subtitles/CC ,...

After WWII, the United States executed Japanese for War Crime of Waterboarding U.S. Soldiers. After the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, an international coalition convened to prosecute Japanese soldiers charged with torture. At the top of the list of techniques was water-based interrogation, known variously then as 'water cure,' 'water torture' and 'waterboarding,' according to the charging documents. It simulates drowning... Source: Politifact

General Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Behind General MacArthur are Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and Lieutenant General A. E. Percival, September 2, 1945. Photo credit: U.S. Navy

Communist Soldiers at Great Wall of China during the Chinese Civil War, April 1946. Source: George Lacks / The LIFE Picture Collection

Devastation: A man looks over the expanse of ruins after the explosion of the atomic bomb in 1945. The skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building where the memorial service was held today is the only building that can be seen still standing. Photo credit: AP

A woman peeks her head out of the rubble of Nagasaki after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city, 1945 Photo credit: Yōsuke Yamahata

On August 9, 1945, American forces dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. In this image, a torii appears to be the only structure left standing. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 am, local time, and it exploded about 1,625 ft (500m) above the ground. The immediate explosion killed 40,000 to 75,000 people. However, by the end of 1945 the death toll in Nagasaki may have been as high as 80,000. [click on this image to find a short video and analysis of the ethics of war and war making]

A mother and child photographed four months after the bombing. Photo credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt / National geographic

This is an image of young girl whose eyes were damaged after witnessing the nuclear blast over Hiroshima, Japan. August 8, 1945 Photo credit: Christer Strömholm

Panorama of destroyed Hiroshima after the nuclear detonation, 1945.

Pictured are the mushrooms clouds from the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. As horrific as this even was, It should be noted that the most destructive bombing event of WWII was neither Hiroshima nor Nagasaki. It was the Operation Meetinghouse, the American firebombing of Tokyo.

The atomic bomb mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 Photo credit: Hiromichi Matsuda (松田 弘道)

Two Marines assess the area while standing next to the raised flag on Mount Suribachi, 1945. LST’s lined up along the assault beaches to the right, the rest of Iwo Jima stretches out in the distance to the left. Photo Credit: Lt. James T. Dockery / U.S. Marine Corps — at Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima.

Emaciated father feeding Army rations to his son after he and his family were freed from a Japanese prison camp following the Allied liberation of the city, February 1945. Photo credit: Carl Mydans / The LIFE Picture Collection

A Chinese girl from one of the Japanese Army's 'comfort battalions' awaits interrogation at a camp in Rangoon. The uniform and insignia on the shoulder of the man next to her indicate that he is a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force, August 8, 1945. Source: Imperial War Museums

U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Hart H. Spiegal tries to communicate with two Japanese child soldiers captured during the Battle of Okinawa. June 17, 1945. Source U.S. federal government

The American invasion of the Marianas began with the amphibious assault against Saipan on June 15, 1944. Following three weeks of bloody fighting, U.S. marines and soldiers succeeded in wresting the island from its determined Japanese defenders. With the island in ruins, surviving civilians were placed in internment camps. In this image a US Marine gives an interned child candy, 1944 Source: United States Marine Corps

Weary and exhausted after the tough battle for Hill 200 Near Peleliu Airport, this Leatherneck sits down amidst the battle rubble and weeps, September 26, 1944 — at Battle of Peleliu.

U.S. Marines taking a Japanese prisoner in the Marshall Islands. The soldier was probably forced to strip to verify he wasn't concealing any weapons, 1944. Photo credit: Does anyone know who took this photo?

US Marines on the beach of Namur Islet, Kwajalein Atoll, the first of the Marshall Islands to be taken from Japan in January–February 1944 Photo credit: Royston Leonard

Captain Nieves Fernandez, the only known Filipino female guerilla leader and formerly a school teacher, shows US Army Pvt. Andrew Lupiba how she used her long knife to silently kill Japanese soldiers during the Japanese occupation of Leyte Island, November 7, 1944. Photo credit: Stanley Troutman — at Leyte Island, Philippines.

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta conference in February, 1945. The leaders discussed their joint occupation of Germany and plans for postwar Europe. Photo credit: U.S. Army