Sven Lindqvist - A History of Bombing

A L S O B Y S V E N L I N D Q V I S T

A N D A V A I L A B L E F R O M G R A N T A B O O K S

'Exterminate All the Brutes'

Desert Divers

A HISTORY OF BOMBING

S V E N L I N D Q V I S T

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L I N D A H A V E R T Y R U G G

Granta Books

L o n d o n

Granta Publications, 2/3 Hanover Yard, London N1 8BE

First published in Great Britain by Granta Books 2001

This edition published by Granta Books 2002

Originally published in Sweden as Nu Dog du by Albert Bonniers Forlag, 1999

Published in the United States by The New Press, 2001

Copyright 2000 by Sven Lindqvist

Translation copyright 2001 by The New Press

Published by arrangement with The New Press. New York

Sven Lindqvist has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmissions of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication maybe reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham PLC

HOW TO READ T H I S BOOK

This bod< is a labyrinth with twenty-two entrances and no exit. Each entrance opens into a narrative or an argument, which you then follow by going from text to text according to the arrow (>) indicating the number of the section where the narrative is continued. So from entrance 1 you proceed to section 166 and continue reading section by section until you come to 173. where another arrow (>) takes you back to entrance 2.

If you get iost, you can find your way again with Ihe assistance of tho table of entrances (Ways into the Book) at the beginning of the book.

In order to move through time, you also have to move through the book, often forward, but sometimes backward. Wherever you are in the text, events and thoughts from that same period surround you, but they belong to narratives other than the one you happen to be following. That's the intention. That way the text emerges as whal it isone of many possible paths throuyh the chaos of history.

So welcome to the labyrinth! Follow the threads, put together the horrifying puzzle, and, once you have seen my century, build one of your own from other pieces.

WAYS INTO T H E BOOK

Numbers refer to section numbers.

Bang, You're Dead: 1,166-173

In the Beginning Was the Bomb: 2,24-25. 28-29, 32-33,62,65-68

The History of the Future: 3, 46, 55-57, 59-60, 72-73

Death C o m e s Flying: 4,76-78,85 . 135,80-84

What Is Permissible in War?: 5, 26-27, 30-31, 35, 45, 40, 43-44, 48-49, 53-54, 58, 64, 75, 79, 39, 41-42, 47, 50

Bombing the Savages: 6, 74. 100-102,106-108,112, 23,113-114,118, 123,146-153

Bombed into Savagery: 7, 109-110, 126,139, 141-143,155

The Law and the Prophets: 8, 93-96, 103-104,111, 124-125, 105, 115-117, 133-134, 140, 144-145

From Chechaouen to Guernica: 9.119, 389,120-122,390,156-184, 293,399

H i e Splendid Decision: 10, 178-180, 174-175, 177,1B1-182,190-194,196

Hamburg, Auschwitz, Dresden: 11, 391,200-211, 213-218

Tokyo: 12, 197-198, 219-222,165, 223-228, 231

Ways Into the Book j

T h e Dream of a Superweapon; 13, 69-71, 87, 183, 89-92, 127-128, 132. 186, 131.

137-138, 176. 189. 187-188, 199, 232-234

Hiroshima: 14, 371-374, 235-236, 241-242, 249-250, 326-327, 351, 364-365. 375-377

Living with the Superweapon: 15, 246-248, 251, 254-255, 262-200

B o m b s Against fndependence: 16, 97-98, 184, 229-230, 243, 256, 259-261, 282-286, 305-309

Korea: 17, 267, 269-272, 237-238, 244-245, 268, 273-275, 366, 276

Massive Retaliation: 18, 36-37, 61, 277-281, 287-292, 296-299, 301-303,312-320

Flexible Retaliation: 19, 322-325, 328-333, 34, 88,185, 334-338, 340, 344-346

Surgical Precision: 20, 38, 51-52, 63, 86. 99,129-130,136,154, 195, 212, 253, 257-258, 347-350, 352, 357-358

The B o m b on Trial: 21, 239-240, 252, 294-295, 300. 304, 310-311, 321, 339, 341, 356, 359-361, 378, 380-388

Nothing Human: 22, 367-369, 392, 342, 370, 343, 393, 353-355, 379, 362-363, 394-398

CHRONOLOGY

The following chronology shows which sections correspond to the years indicated.

S E C T I O N S

762-1910

2 3 - 7 4

1911-1939

7 5 - 1 7 6

1940-1945

1946-1955

2 4 8 - 2 S 1

1956-1965

3 9 3 - 3 3 7

1966-1975

3 2 8 - 3 5 1

1976-1905

3 5 2 - 3 6 5

1906-1995

3 6 0 - 3 8 0

1996-1999

3 8 1 3 9 ! )

A HISTORY OF BOMBING

1 BANG, YOU'RE DEAD

"Bang, you're dead!" we said, "I got you!" we said. When we played, it was always war. A bunch of us together, one-on-one, or in solitary fantasies - always war, always death,

"Don't play like that," our parents said, "you could grow up that way." Some threat

there was no way we would rather be. We didn't need war toys. Any old stick became a weapon in our hands, and pinecories were bombs. I cannot recall taking a single piss during my childhood, whether outside or at homo in the outhouse, when I didn't choose a target and bomb it. At five years of age 1 was already a seasoned bombardier.

"If everyone plays war." said my mother, "there will ba war." And she was quite right there was. > 186

2 IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE BOMB

In the beginning was the bomb. It consisted of a pipe, like a bamboo pipe of the type abundant in China, filled with an explosive, like gunpowder, which the Chinese had discovered as early as the ninth century. If one closed this pipe at both ends, it became a bomb.

When the pipe was opened at one end. it was blown forward by the explosion. The bomb then became a rocket. It soon developed into a two-stage rocket - a targe rocket that rose into the air and released a shower of small rockets over the enemy The Chinese used rockets of this type in their defense of Kaifeng in 1232. The rocket weapon spread via the Arabs and Indians to Europe around 1250 - but it was forgotten again until the English rediscovered it at the beginning of the 19th century.

If the rocket was opened at the other end the bomb became a gun or a cannon. The explosion blew out whatever had been tamped into the pipe, like a bullet or another, smaller bomb, called a shell. Both the gun and the cannon had been fully developed in China by 1280, and they reached Europe thirty years later. > 24

3 THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

1880-1910

Good morning! My name is Meister. Professor Meister. I will be lecturing today on the history of the future as depicted in Three Hundred Years Hence by William D. Hay. When this book came out in 1861, my time lay three hundred years ahead of the reader's. Today the society of United Man, in which I live, has drawn much closer to you. But my situation as narrator is essentially unchanged. I am speaking of your future, which for me is history.

I know what is going to happen to you, since for me it has already happened. >- 46