Noncombatants Deaths Are Just the Cost of War

In all wars bad things happen and World War Two (WWII) was no exception. In WWII over 4,590,000 civilians were killed as a result of military actions in Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and France alone.1 Were they necessary deaths? This paper will attempt to show that in war, civilians die - some by accident as a result of military actions, but others outright due to the racial or tactical pursuits of a nation state. Before the reader can understand the actions of WWII, he must first look at other wars and how civilians were treated in order to establish a baseline for the conduct of a nation state in its prosecution of WWII.