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Terror bombing is an emotive term used to describe aerial attacks made by a belligerent to...

Terror bombing is an emotive term used to describe aerial attacks made by a belligerent to demoralise an enemy. Use of the term to describe aerial attacks implies that the attacks are criminal attacks that fall outside the law of war, or if within the laws of war are nevertheless a moral crime. According to John Algeo in Fifty years among the new words its first recorded usage in a United States publication was in a Readers Digest article in June 1941, a finding confirmed by the Oxford English Dictionary. The aerial attacks described as terror bombing are often long range strategic bombing raids, although attacks against tactical targets which result in the deaths of civilians may also be described as such, or if the attacks involve fighters strafing they may be labeled "terror attacks." Japanese terror bombing was independently conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. Bombing efforts mostly targeted large Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan and Chonging. Three thousand tons of bombs were launched on Chongqing between 1939 and 1942. According to photographer Carl Mydans, the spring 1941 bombings on Chongqing were "the most