If you're interested in the context of this type of "strategic" bombing, and how it played into the U.S. decision to use the atomic bombs in WWII, listen to the "Logical Insanity" episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast: <a href="http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-42-blitz-logical-insanity/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-42-blitz-l...</a><p>It's long, but quite informative.
To add to the horror, realize that the vast majority of Americans will adamantly defend these bombings as well as the atomic bombings, using verbatim talking points taught to them as children in public schools.
There's an interactive map at the Tokyo-Edo museum (great museum; highly worth your time if you're there) that shows the progression of the bombing campaign over time:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_biWi-lXTM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_biWi-lXTM</a><p>The scale of that is mind-boggling. I had no idea, the first time I saw it, the amount of destruction involved. It rivals Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but we (in the US) almost never hear about it.<p>To put a more human face on it:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo#mediaviewer/File:Tokyo_kushu_1945-3.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo#mediaviewer/Fi...</a>
This reminds me of Robert McNamara's rule for proportionality in the movie The Fog of War. What amount of brutality is necessary to achieve a political objective?