If you carry the Emperor on your shoulders, you are one with...

If you carry the Emperor on your shoulders, you are one with him. You can't change your mind when the bomb are reigning down on your head. Too late for a "road to Damascus" moment.

BTW 'Twas Japan and Germany that first targeted civilians in WWII. Both cried foul after Dresden/Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Too late to change the rules by then.

FWIW, I still consider the fire-bombing of Dresden a war crime, but it DID prove that Germany was beaten. Again they chose to fight rather than surrender and stop further bloodshed.

If the vanquished cannot stop fighting, the victors are entitled to bring hostilities to an end using whatever means are at their disposal.