Ethics of World War II Military Personnel

Ethical theories of war primarily stem from the Christian tradition and writings of St. Augustine. Known as ôjust-warö theory, the doctrine attempts to answer two questions: When war is justified?; and, Once it is declared what limits should be placed on combat personnel? The first part of this theory, ôjust warö is from the Latin Jus ad bellum and outlines the conditions under which military force is justified, (Ethics 2003, 1). The second part of just war theory contains the Latin concept of Jus in bello, a prescription for conducting war in an ethical manner, (Ethics 2003, 1). The second component of just war theory is the focus of this research.

During World War II there were numerous actions taken by military personnel that are of highly questionable ethics. These include to name a few, the Holocaust, the Bataan Death March, the internment of Japanese citizens, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan by Allied forces. Military ethics attempts to determine if these and less spectacular but violent acts against others during World War II were necessary and/or ethical. In four works that relive the World War II experience from a variety of perspectives including a Japanese familiar with kamikaze forces, a former soldier of the Waffen-SS, a journalist, and an historian. The analysis of these works shows that war is a costly and violent business that often smashes our conventional concepts of ethical treatm

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grandfather had served in the military and Voss, hoping to serve his country he loved, volunteered to belong to the elite division like many other Germans. Such ethics motivated the seventeen-year-old enlistee while he fought as a machine gunner in SS-Mountain Infantry Regiment 11, (Voss 2002). However, VossÆ capture and place in a prisoner of war camp under U.S. administration shocked him into disbelief. During his time as a PW, Voss was given photographs from the concentration camps while serving as a clerk and translator. The horrific images and the horrible violation of human rights he saw were something that shook his values and ethics to his core. He knew many comrades who served with honor and distinction. He found the conduct of those in uniform in charge of the camps reprehensible. He could not deny but also could not believe the images before him. He tells us his parents would never have condoned such acts and that most Germans like himself generally believed the concentration camps were ôwork camps,ö (Voss 2002). He comes to the conclusion that there is no answer of ôwhyö with respect to difficult questions of personal value systems, having become somewhat of a relativist with respect to ethics because of the
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Approximate Word count = 2120
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)