What is Permissible During the War

In war many lives, time and resources are spent trying to decide a winner, and this could lead to prolonged war which as Sun Tzu said, “There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare” (Sun Tzu, Art of War pg7). For instance, World War II lasted six years long and cost many lives and human suffering, and in order to end this prolonged war, many actions had to be done that would normally be considered “war crimes”. Therefore, to save time, protect your country, and the result of the action, all actions are permissible during war.

All actions are permissible during war for the outcome of the action could have a positive impact. For instance, the atom bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan to surrender. The Japanese believed surrendering was dishonorable because of the Bushido code which is the unwritten Samurai code of conduct, so they would rather fight to the last man than surrendering. So, the atom bomb ended what could have been a long war with many different possible outcomes.

Furthermore, protecting your country is a reason that any action in war is permissible. For example, in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, an alien species attacks our planet and humans barely managed to fight them off, so to protect the Earth the humans attacked the aliens and eliminated the threat. This is an example of how in order to protect your country you have to do whatever it takes, for if you don’t there will not be a country to defend anymore, or in Ender’s Game there wouldn’t be any humans left to defend the earth.

Finally, saving time is a reason that any action is permissible in the war when the US was deciding whether to drop the atom bombs on Japan, they calculated how many lives would be taken, as well as the resources and time it takes to launch an invasion into Japan.

The estimated toll and expenditure was very high, and the outcome was not certain, for the Allies thought that an invasion of Japan would be a grisly repeat of the Battle of Okinawa in which 34 thousand US troops were killed. However, that was a fraction of the force they would use if they invaded Japan in their own homeland. Hence, the US decided to use the atomic bomb because they were saving resources, time, and the lives spent in vain trying to win a war that could be finished quickly.

In conclusion, any action is permissible in war because you need to protect your country, save lives, time, and resources, and the effect of what you do. However, there are many laws that limit warfare, but the atomic bomb was considered a war crime by the war-time laws, but the atom bomb was effective and saved the lives of many American soldiers from having to fight a war, so the outcome outweighed the loss of civilians, and to this day we have peace with Japanese. “