[DialOne]

Killing from a distance is surely less affecting than up close. This is as applicable between the difference of shooting someone and firing a missile from a control panel miles away as it is between shooting someone from a long distance and stabbing someone to death.

The "closer" the kill, the more of an effect it's going to have on someone's mind. This was most morbidly shown during the Holocaust. Hitler would have probably been more inclined to simply kill off the Jews if he could've guaranteed that he had enough people morally flexible enough to do so rather than to instead round them up and send them to death camps.

As disturbing as it sounds, it's easier for people to watch others starve to death than it is to have them actually shoot millions of people en masse. There was just enough psychological distance involved for people to simply "follow orders."

Granted, the Japanese Imperialists weren't so bothered by it apparently. The Rape of Nanjing is a horrific example of what humans are capable of if you brainwash them in a culture that convinces them that groups like the Chinese are sub-human. The Japanese had no problem killing millions of innocent people without any physical distance involved and without any survivalist imperative.