Lest we forget...
75 years ago, a new era in warfare began.
On July 7th, 1937, a clash between the Chinese and the Japanese forces at the Marco Polo Bridge, in north of the Chinese capital, Beijing, sparked off an all-out war between China and Japan. The Japanese, one of the winners of WW1, had built a new colony in northern China, by setting up a puppet regime nominally headed by the last emperor of the Manchurian dynasty.
On July 7th, 1937, a clash between the Chinese and the Japanese forces at the Marco Polo Bridge, in north of the Chinese capital, Beijing, sparked off an all-out war between China and Japan. The Japanese, one of the winners of WW1, had built a new colony in northern China, by setting up a puppet regime nominally headed by the last emperor of the Manchurian dynasty.
The Japanese were not seeking a head-on war with the Chinese. For their worst enemy was international communism. Japan itself had been threatened by a possible socialist disturbance - Japan's colonisation of northern China was meant to be a solution to provide place to settle to the jobless masses in Japan.
When a war broke out with the Chinese in 1937, they were thinking in terms of 'punitive expedition' to punish the Chinese wrongdoers, which reflects their self-belief that they were the leader of East Asia. The Chinese had other ideas, and refused to give in. This led to an all-out assault on China proper in August and eventually, later in the same year, to the attack on Shanghai and Nanking, the then Chinese capital.
When a war broke out with the Chinese in 1937, they were thinking in terms of 'punitive expedition' to punish the Chinese wrongdoers, which reflects their self-belief that they were the leader of East Asia. The Chinese had other ideas, and refused to give in. This led to an all-out assault on China proper in August and eventually, later in the same year, to the attack on Shanghai and Nanking, the then Chinese capital.
This should have been a typical colonial warfare - only that the Japanese picked a nation more advanced compared with other countries in Asia and Africa colonised by leading European powers in the previous century. Asia was about to bounce back, and the Japanese, the latecomer to the imperial game, missed the sign of a Chinese recovery.
Frustrated Japanese resorted to something new in warfare: aerial bombing. Of course this was not their invention.
Frustrated Japanese resorted to something new in warfare: aerial bombing. Of course this was not their invention.
Only ten years after the airplane was invented by the Wright brothers, WW1 broke out. Naturally, all warring nations used this new invention. Initially for reconnaissance. Then they mounted a machine gun on a plane so opposing planes cd shoot at each other. Some big planes were built, for the purpose of dropping bombs. Still, this was technology in infancy and no one was sure how warfare might be changed because of the introduction of air power.
When the Iraqis revolted against the British in 1926, the British bombed some Iraqi civilians, to the consternation of the public. Yet, military people all over the world already believed that this was the face of future warfare: terror bombing to attack enemy at home front psychologically.
When the Iraqis revolted against the British in 1926, the British bombed some Iraqi civilians, to the consternation of the public. Yet, military people all over the world already believed that this was the face of future warfare: terror bombing to attack enemy at home front psychologically.
So, fast forward to 1937. In April, the German air force conducted a historical experiment in Spain, during its civil war. Supporting the fascist general, Franco, the German Luftwaffe bombed a Basque town of Guernica in a deliberate attempt to terrorise its inhabitants. It is believed that more than 1,500 people were killed in one day's bombing. Thanks to Pablo Picaso's famed painting depicting this new terror from above, this one's got much publicity.
The Japanese, too, from the summer of 1937, progressively entangled in an endless war in China, bombed Chinese cities indiscriminately, in a desperate attempt to break Chinese resistance. Bombings in Shanghai, Nanking and Chongqing shocked the world.
The Japanese, too, from the summer of 1937, progressively entangled in an endless war in China, bombed Chinese cities indiscriminately, in a desperate attempt to break Chinese resistance. Bombings in Shanghai, Nanking and Chongqing shocked the world.
The fact was, most people simply assumed that this would be how wars would be fought in the years following the end of WW1, and did not think much about what it would be like to be at the receiving end of bombing. The Chinese themselves bombed the Japanese forces in Shanghai; the Japanese were relentless attacking Chinese civilians. When WW2 broke out two years later, it only became clear that the US and Britain were also preparing for this form of warfare, building big bombers such as the Lancaster bomber and the B-17. They would simply out-bomb the Axis powers, building larger bombers in larger numbers. WW2 was indeed a war of bombing aimed at destroying enemy's industrial capacity to wage wars and both military and civilian morale, in which both sides were guilty parties.
One lesson learnt is that you cannot destroy enemy's morale by dropping bombs. The Chinese proved that in 1937-38; so did the Germans in 1943-45. The Japanese public did not go out begging the government to end war in 1945 either, even after two atom bombs were used. It was the emperor who decided that he could not tolerate to lose more people to this form of warfare.
After the Cold War mercifully failed to produce a single casualty to nuclear bombing, we still live in an uncertain world. More has been learnt about the use of air power and now air power is used in more measured ways. Yet, as the Iraqi wars in 1990/1 and 2003ff attest, the use of air power inevitably produce civilian victims. Plus, looking at civil wars fought in many countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the idea of air power as a terror weapon is still alive and well, and this is the world that began 75 years ago.
One lesson learnt is that you cannot destroy enemy's morale by dropping bombs. The Chinese proved that in 1937-38; so did the Germans in 1943-45. The Japanese public did not go out begging the government to end war in 1945 either, even after two atom bombs were used. It was the emperor who decided that he could not tolerate to lose more people to this form of warfare.
After the Cold War mercifully failed to produce a single casualty to nuclear bombing, we still live in an uncertain world. More has been learnt about the use of air power and now air power is used in more measured ways. Yet, as the Iraqi wars in 1990/1 and 2003ff attest, the use of air power inevitably produce civilian victims. Plus, looking at civil wars fought in many countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the idea of air power as a terror weapon is still alive and well, and this is the world that began 75 years ago.
