Germany and Japan took the lead in the terror bombing of cities during World War II, acts that sparked outrage from President Roosevelt and many others. U.S. bombing, by contrast, hewed to strategic targets, prioritizing military installations and factories until 1944, when it supported Britain in the wholesale bombing of German cities. But the critical moment in US bombing and napalming of cities came with the firebombing and nuclear attacks that obliterated large areas of Japanese cities between February and August 1945, leaving an indelible imprint not only on the urban landscape but also on subsequent U.S. war making. This paper reflects on the meaning of the atomic age and the nature of U.S. strategic principles, in light of U.S. fire bombing in the final months of the war.

If the doctrine of strategic bombing has been the object of much attention in the military history and international relations literature (Biddle 2002, Pape 2011), few studies have focused on the means deployed to achieve the bombings. Yet, these means are crucial to understand three decisive aspects of the doctrine and practice of strategic bombing: (1) how they have been defined; (2) how they have changed; and (3) how they have been perceived and used by different actors (militaries, international institutions and public opinion) over time (3). This article highlights these issues through the analysis of napalm utilization by the US military. It demonstrates that the massive use of this weapon, from its creation in 1942 to the Vietnam War, is at the core of a shift in the doctrine and practice of American strategic bombing. The article demonstrates that analysis of the weapons deployed for ‘strategic bombing’ enriches the historiography – and the understanding - of the doctrine and practice of strategic bombing itself.

Aerial bombardment has undergone many changes in the past century, in its technological characteristics, in the harm it has inflicted on civilians, and in its legal status. The trajectories of development in these three areas are complicated and interrelated. Although the practice of firebombing cities seems part of a distant past, and an evident violation of current legal norms, the continued maintenance of thousands of nuclear weapons makes worse destruction an ever-present possibility. While the increasing accuracy of bombing methods, especially by drones, makes it easier to protect innocents from harm, broad definitions of what constitutes a military target continue to put civilians at risk. Moreover, the ease with which major powers use drones outside of recognized sites of armed conflict makes resort to force more likely.

The articles included in this special issue on the bombing of civilians from World War II to the present represent a selection drawn from a December 2015 Paris workshop held on the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. The workshop was organized by the Mass Violence & Resistance online journal (CERI-Sciences Po and the Center for History at Sciences Po) in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Journal and is being published simultaneously at both sites.

This essay reveals the vital role of transnational learning in structuring air defense in Japan, Germany, and Britain in World War II, while comparing how each regime shaped the contours of home-front mobilization. In the decades between the two world wars, states increasingly recognized the new threat of aerial bombardment of cities, and they actively investigated other nations' efforts at “civilian defense” and “total war.” Learning continued during World War II. In countries experiencing bombing, civil defense programs did more to mobilize daily life than any other wartime imperative. Remarkably, civil defense operations in Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and democratic Britain resembled each other—recruiting or conscripting millions of men, women, and youths to serve as neighborhood-based air raid wardens, “fire watchers,” first-aid workers, and members of civil defense associations. At the same time, differences in regimes and circumstances affected the degree of compulsion in each case.

1. Introduction - Mark Selden and Claire Andrieu

2. Defending Civilians against Aerial Bombardment: A Comparative/Transnational History of Japanese, German, and British Home Fronts, 1918-1945 - Sheldon Garon

3. Blockbusters, Nukes, and Drones: Trajectories of Change over a Century - Matthew Evangelista

4. American Fire Bombing and Atomic Bombing of Japan in History and Memory - Mark Selden

5. Napalm in US Bombing Doctrine and Practice, 1942-1975 - Marine Guillaume