As America was still battling for survival in January of 1945, the U.S. initially targeted key Japanese war industry facilities with little success — much of the Japanese manufacturing process was carried out in small workshops and private homes.
Under pressure from Washington, tactics were changed to low-level incendiary raids against Japanese cities as the only way to destroy their production capabilities, with the aim to destroy the enemy's war industries. The rational was that civilians who took part in the war effort were in the legal sense subject be attacked.
The firebombing of Tokyo, March 9–10, 1945, was the single deadliest air raid in history; with a greater area of fire damage and loss of life than either of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
This is the unenvious dilemma that Israel faces regarding her existential threats.
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