On December 7, 1941, the forces of the Empire of Japan launched a successful surprise attack against Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the sinking or running aground of eighteen US military ships, and the death and injuries of nearly 3700 Americans, of which the vast majority, were military personnel. Since, at the time of this attack, Japan and America were not at war, the death of these soldiers were non-combatants, and because the attack was a surprise, FDR declared that this was "… a date which will live in infamy." While there are a lot of things one can say about the attack at Pearl Harbor, it was without question, a military attack upon American military resources, made in the hope that the American naval forces would be irreparably damaged in the Pacific theatre.
Japan, initially, was quite successful in their military excursions, as they were victorious in battles and conquest of strategic resources in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, and other nation states. Alas, for Japan, their success would not last, as the Allied forces, in particular American forces, would battle back and retake and reclaim areas that had been ceded to Japan. Not too surprisingly, because this was war and Japan was a fierce fighter, many American men died as they borne the battle on behalf of their country, the Allied nations, and freedom.
By March of 1945, the outcome of the war with Japan was clear, yet the Americans had lost many good men at a terrible cost in hand-to-hand combat as they had taken back island by island, areas previously commanded by Japanese forces. This meant in actuality that there was no military justification for the firebombing of Tokyo, just as there would later be no military justification for the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The planning of the firebombing of Tokyo, was deliberate, and carefully thought out so as to inflict as much damage as possible; it was also stunningly effective, as about three hundred B-29 bombers dropped nearly 1700 tons of bombs that completely annihilated 16 square miles of Tokyo, resulting in the deaths of approximately 100,000 civilians, the injuries to perhaps another 50,000, and homelessness for an additional 1 million civilians, during the ensuring massive firestorm.
General LeMay is credited with the strategic planning and the implementation of not only this firebombing attack but subsequent firebombing attacks against other Japanese cities. LeMay was alleged to have said: "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.” Not too surprisingly, American history has been written so as to emphasize the "infamy" of Japan's naval attack upon our most strategically important Pacific naval base, whereas any discussion of America's deliberate and wanton firebombing of Japanese civilians, is couched in terms of having to do so in order to destroy the "cottage" war production of certain Japanese cities and other assorted justified nonsense.
We are now seventy years removed from these firebombing attacks upon Japan, which should with strong justification be seen as both cruel and as unusual punishment. It would be one thing to then say, well, that was then, and this is now, but the fact of the matter is, America has not lost its lust of targeting and dropping devastating bombs on other countries, always finding some shaky justification to do so, but never having the courage to admit of the sickening effect that the bombing has on the suffering civilians that have received our terrible swift sword, and the living hell we have gifted to them.