so today i was curious and thought to myself "what does one have to do to be considered a Criminal when killing is the norm during war. i looked up war crimes and came across this definition :
"A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility.Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, wantonly destroying property, taking hostages, perfidy, rape, using child soldiers, pillaging, declaring that no quarter will be given, and using weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering."
while reading this definition i began to think about what was said about "intentionally killing civilians" which is exactly what we did when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed millions of people just going about their day. i don't mean to sound like a snobby millennial or non-patriotic and i understand they the Japanese did in fact attack us first but i still cant help but wounder what would happen to us if we where on the other end of the shoe and being charged ourselves with war crimes. can somebody please explain to me why Americans where not put on trial during Nuremberg? (unless the trial was only for Nazi's)
"intentionally killing civilians"
That's the problem there - that civilians were killed doesn't mean civilians were the intentional targets of such an attack. Yes, they knew civilians would die - but that doesn't make it a war crime since they were not the intended targets.
Keeping in mind that strategic bombing of WW2 was notoriously inaccurate, requiring hundreds of bombers and thousands of bombs to hit individual targets, one could purely target a military target that ends up killing thousands of nearby civilians. As thus, the atomic bomb (which at this time did not have the connotations that the later thermonuclear devices/hydrogen bombs did, which were magnitudes more powerful and could truly wipe out major cities in a single blast) was viewed as another new weapon in the strategic bombing campaign to weaken Japan prior to the invasion which was scheduled for November 1st, 1945, less than 100 days away from when the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. That it was indiscriminate was not out of the norm of the weapons of the day.
And on that note, the US dropped leaflets over Hiroshima before the atomic bombs, quite clearly stating the intent of what they were planning to do (note that this is in fact a cia.gov link, in case you worry):
“Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.”
Adding to the above, the Japanese also had the tendency to manufacture weapons and other military hardware in of small, decentralized armories scattered throughout the metropolitan areas of major cities (in addition to those large factories that they did maintain). In some cases, simpler parts were actually produced directly in civilian homes! As cruel as it sounds, eliminating these would ultimately save American lives on the battlefield. Hiroshima was also the headquarters of the 2nd General Army, the 59th Army (corps), and contained various elements from several divisions. In all, nearly 40,000 Japanese military personnel were in the city when it was bombed.
The two bombings also worked to save countless lives on both sides in general: literally every other option available to the Allies for ending the war, from blockade to invasion, would have seen more death and bloodshed than those two days in August 1945.