Firestorm Of Dresden : The Bombing Of The World War II

Many people were baked alive in this raid. About 873 bombers were bombing the German city. Dresden did not have any military or industrial targets that opposing countries would have wanted to destroy; it became known as a terror bombing by the British because it was not a target. The raid caused many unwanted deaths and destroyed a small city. The casualties that occurred in these events would not have happened if it were not for the new and improved aircraft.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only a few days apart from each other and before they dropped the atomic bombs on those two cities, airplanes flew by and dropped leaflets warning the people of Japan warning them to evacuate the cities. The leaflets warned the people of Japan that they have the most destructive weapon possessed by man and the only reason they are forced to use said bombs is because Japan’s military leaders will not surrender to the United States (“WGBH”). While people believe that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unjustified, the U.S. was right in bombing Japan to defend their country and to not cause any more allied casualties.

The purposeful bombing of civilians as a wartime strategy has oftentimes been used to bring about the end of a war, but controversy has sparked up about the ethicality of this practice because of its mass destruction of human lives. This tactic goes against human nature’s aversion to intentionally cause harm without a reasonable basis. Is the bombing of innocent people justified if it ultimately brings an end to the war? This ethical question arises when considering the issue of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

The reason that the atomic bomb was considered to be very effective was because it had the capability to wipe out an entire city, including troops, men, women, and children. Would an act of this capacity be considered as moral? Scholars dispute the morality of Truman’s decision, some arguing it was warranted by Japan’s aggression and refusal to surrender, and other scholars suggesting that the assaults were the moral equivalent of the Nazi holocaust (109). I postulate that to annihilate an entire city of people in one fell swoop is something that neither man nor nation should be able to decide, even if they conceive the other party to be deserving of such a punishment in retribution for their actions.

The main occurrence in the novel was the nonsensical bombing of the culturally enriched and beautiful city in Dresden, Germany. On February 13, 1945 amidst World War II this city was attack

When British and American forces raided the city with firebombs, Vonnegut and his fellow captives were saved due to their underground imprisonment. The bombing killed more than 135,000 people, most of whom were innocent civilians, more than the deaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. After the bombing, Vonnegut was given the morbid task of carrying the corpses from Air-Raid shelters, including women, children, and the elderly; dead from concussions, fire, or suffocation. In a letter to his father, Vonnegut described his job and the reaction of the locals, “Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge pyres in the city,” (Boomhower). His distressing internment in Dresden not only furthered his anti-war sentiments, but also established a reoccurring theme in his books: the irrationality of government and the senselessness of war. Vonnegut saw the bombing of Dresden and the slaughter of innocents as wasteful and meaningless. He could not comprehend the purpose of destroying a “beautiful” and fully functional civilization (Wiswell 5). The annihilation of the city and lives of the innocent affirmed his views of war as a waste, and even lead to his feeling that, “civilization ended in World War I” (Vitale). This view indicated Vonnegut believed World War II was a meaningless act committed by the uncivilized.

The fatal atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of World War II are written down in history books today. This is because they had a drastic story behind them that changed the world and the lives of many civilians. The United States decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had both positive and negative results.

One potentially significant area of impact caused by strategic bombing was its effect on German moral. This is because it was expected to terrify and shock the German

In 1945, at the order of President Harry Truman, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which triggered controversy worldwide. The debate arose between two sides, with one favoring the decision and the other calling it inhumane. Those favoring the decision agreed with President Truman, that dropping the atomic bomb was justified because it ended World War II. Those in favor also believed the bombing was justified because the US had given Japan a chance to surrender before they made the decision to drop the bomb. Those against the decision claimed Japan was ready to surrender and the bombing was unnecessary.

The bombing of Dresden from February 13 to February 15, 1945 remains one of the most controversial bombings in World War II. Located in eastern Germany, Dresden was targeted by Allied bombers during the final months World War II in the European theatre. The justification of the bombing remains controversial because the city was neither a political center nor an industrial center contributing to the Nazi war effort. The one word that describes Dresden before its decimation was innocence.

Most anti-war books focus on crimes and suffering that are well known. They present us with narratives we are already familiar with, but may be more personal, realistic or shocking from one book to another. Vonnegut presents us with a story he himself says is forgotten, the firebombing of Dresden. The firebombing of Dresden killed more citizens than did either well-known atomic bomb dropped on Japan. In addition, the destruction of the city had no clear military purpose. When Vonnegut, who experienced the event himself, tried to contact government agencies for figures on its fatalities, the agencies couldn’t give him information; they told him it was, “top secret still” (11). This reveals that we know only a fraction of the horrors of war. Only the events that happen to become famous are known to us; the rest, just as bad, disappear into obscurity. The firebombing of Dresden makes us wonder how much more we don’t know. It isn’t the description of the firebombing of Dresden that makes Slaughterhouse Five the greatest anti-war book of all time, it is the suggestion that the firebombing of Dresden is only one crime among the

In All Quiet on the Western Front, the war was brutal and horrific, but it was witnessed by all the parties included. In Hiroshima, especially with the invention of the atomic bomb the result is even more horrifying, but the afflicted and the perpetrators have vastly different viewpoints. In America, we only get the reported results of the aftermath of the destruction we don’t witness them firsthand. However, the victims in Hiroshima will never forget the true extent of devastation of the atomic bomb not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. The effects of the technological advances in the 20th century have launched a new, deadlier type of war that hides the truth of war behind empty statistics and callous button-pushing that could destroy the entire

In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there are many important symbols that are used repeatedly to help solidify the first person account of his experience of the Holocaust. The major, overarching symbol is, of course, the night itself. The night is used by Wiesel to represent death and the potential darkness of the human soul. For him, the acts carried out during the Holocaust represent the fullest of humanity's capacity for evil.

In the bombing of Dresden everybody dies, the city burns to the ground, yet Billy doesn’t care for in his mind which has been broken by war, life and death are irrelative therefore accepting what happened immediately: “Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals… Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes,” (Vonnegut 90). Simile compares Dresden to the moon, for the moon is full of craters from millions of asteroids impacting the moon just like Dresden which is full of craters form the carpet bombing. This implies emptiness for nothing exist within a crater. Kurt Vonnegut expresses the theme of grief; one may experience a traumatic event and experience grief, probably in the manner of an initial shock from the trauma, causing

On September 5, 1944 Allied bombs began to fall from the sky onto the port town of Le Havre, France. The second most important port city in France, according to www.encyclopedia.com, was targeted by the Ally troops and bombed in order to keep the German Army from using the port city as a gateway to an invasion of Great Britain. Many civilians fled the town on foot after the Germans captured the town in 1940, but many others who remained in the town were injured or killed during the bombings. Nearly 5,000 civilians met their deaths during the attack deemed Operation Astonia, nearly 80,000 people lost their homes. (www.worldheritagesite.org) The bombings continued over five days and destroyed 12,500 buildings. Le Havre was only one of the 1,570 cities/towns that were bombed in France during World War II. (en.wikipedia.org)