The Impact of Strategic Bombing in the Pacific

Abstract

The now familiar mushroom clouds that appeared in skies over Japanese home islands fifty years ago were not only culmina tion of strategic bombing campaign of World War II, but were a precursor of dominant role of this method of warfare in post war period. This assessment will commence with appearance of new American leadership in Pacific in January 1945 and con tinue analysis through dropping of atomic bombs. It will conclude with an examination of results of strategic campaign and its impact on immediate postwar world. The writing of this essay calls to mind Richard Overy's perceptive comment that the difficult question to answer is not whether air power was important, but how important it was.1 In attempting to answer that dilemma, particularly as it relates to topic of strategic bomb ing, care must be exercised not to assign or take away undue credit from strategic attacks. Although by most any index available bulk of visible destruction was caused by B-29 Superfortresses, other elements of Allied power contributed to defeat and final surrender of Japanese. Among these were submarine campaign that reduced Japanese shipping to a virtual trickle, attacks by car rier-launched U.S. Navy planes and losses in earlier engagements where Japanese expended irreplaceable assets such as skilled pi lots and aircraft carriers.