General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Majority of Americans now oppose Israeli action in Gaza: Gallup poll [View all]DemocraticPatriot
(4,449 posts)very likely the victims of American anti-aircraft fire, rather than victims of the Japanese-- but nobody wanted to talk about that for a long time.
All those shells that went up and didn't hit aircraft, had to come down somewhere... Later investigations determined that at least 40 civilian casualties were caused by American anti-aircraft fire from the ships.
As far as the mass deaths of Japanese (or German, for that matter) civilians in World War II goes, I hope we have moved beyond thinking that it was justified, excusable or not in fact a "war crime". Hell, even General Curtis LeMay who led Army Air Forces which engaged in firebombing in Japan, recognized that he would probably be charged with war crimes for these attacks, if the Allies didn't win the war...
I don't excuse or justify what we did to civilians in Japan and Germany in World War 2, and I certainly don't care to see those numbers used to attempt to excuse what Israel is doing today in Gaza.