Soarched Earth (Bumi Hangus)

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Although initially referring to the practice of burning crops to deny the enemy food sources, in its modern usage the term includes the destruction of infrastructure such as shelter, transportation, communications and industrial resources. The practice may be carried out by an army in enemy territory, or its own home territory. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of an enemy's resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons. It was most famously used against Napoleon's and Hitler's armies invading Russia. The strategy of destroying the food supply of the civilian population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The relevant passage says: It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive. Despite being prohibited, it is still a common practice. The protocol only applies to those countries that have ratified it, notable exceptions being the United States, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq

Philippine-American War
U.S. attacks into the Philippine countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, torture (water cure) and the concentration of civilians into "protected zones". Many of the civilian casualties resulted from disease and famine.

Second Sino-Japanese War

During the Second Sino-Japanese War the Imperial Japanese Army had a scorched-earth policy, known as "Three Alls Policy". Due to the Japanese scorched-earth policy immense environmental and infrastructure damage have been recorded. Additionally it contributed to the complete destruction of entire villages and partial destruction of entire cities like Chongqing or Nanjing. The Chinese National Revolutionary Army destroyed dams and levees in an attempt to flood the land to slow down the advancement of Japanese soldiers, further adding to the environmental impact. This policy resulted in the 1938 Huang He flood.

Argentina
n the Argentina war of independence, the Jujuy Exodus, led by Manuel Belgrano, also used a scorched earth strategy. In 1868, T hoe sheltered the M ori leader Te Kooti, and for this were subjected to a scorched earth policy, in which their crops and buildings were destroyed and their people of fighting age were captured