Quote Originally Posted by MMI View Post
Why cities? Why not military targets?
Actually, they were military targets. According to Wikipedia, "During World War II, the Second Army and Chugoku Regional Army were headquartered in Hiroshima, and the Army Marine Headquarters was located at Ujina port. The city also had large depots of military supplies, and was a key center for shipping."

And Nagasaki's "main industry was ship-building. This very industry would eventually make it a target in World War II, since many warships used by the Japanese Navy during the war were built in its factories and docks."

However, doing some research on this to determine the kinds of targets, I found some disturbing information. Apparently, Truman's military advisers didn't think dropping the bomb was necessary, that carpet bombing and embargo could have forced a Japanese surrender, especially if the Allies would have backed off of their unconditional surrender stance. It may be that Truman's primary reason for dropping the bombs was to frighten Stalin. I find this quite disturbing.

On the other hand, though, carpet bombing, even with conventional weapons, would probably have resulted in far more casualties, and infrastructure damage, to the Japanese than these two bombs.

This discussion probably should be moved to a separate thread, though, if the moderators agree.