Ryanwb

So, why didn't we drop the "bomb" on Tokyo? Why were the targets Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Were those some huge military targets? I asked this to most history teachers I have ever had and they always gave me some stupid answer that boiled down to, "I don't know"

Dback Jon

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen for several reasons.

1) They were large cities, but not the major cities. Large enough to get Japan's attention, small enough not to cause millions of deaths.

2) Both were relatively undamaged from conventional bombings. In fact, several cities were spared conventional bombing in order to have atomic bomb targets. Dropping a bomb on Tokyo, which was subject to round-the-clock bombardment, would have not had the same damage effect - it would be more difficult to tell what damage was caused.

I am sure there are other reasons, but those are the reasons I have read about.

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jf-08

They were considered to be "military" targets.

here is some pretty informative info on the decision of the targets:

http://www.dannen.com/decision/

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justAndy

is that after the first bomb was dropped, the Japanese attempted to surrender, but Truman wanted to "show the Russians something" and had the second bomb dropped anyway.
War IS hell...

Ryanwb

I thought it steamed from their wanting a "conditional" surrender. They did not want occupation in their country

justAndy

that may well have been a factor, but there are memos that came to light that urged Truman to drop a militarily unnecessary bomb on the northern city of Nagasaki that the Russians could witness

Dback Jon

One problem with that - Nagasaki was not the primary target of the second bomb. The primary target was clouded over, so they had to proceed on to the secondary target.

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The KING of Cards

Dback Jon

Plus, as this map shows:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshell...apan/japan.htm

Nagasaki is further south than Hiroshima.

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AZCB34

Nagasaki and Hioroshima were industrial centers if I recall correctly. The thinking was that if the Japanese didn't surrender, their ability to continue to supply themselves would be significantly difficult.

Tokyo was more of a political target/government target. While I have never been given a good answer why either, my own theory would be the worry by American decision makers that a headless Japanese would be even worse and that the only way to achieve peace was to have the leaders of Japan call for the surrender. Think how a headless Iraq right now is in turmoil and is dangerous to US forces.

As for the reason the second bomb was dropped, The Japaese had offered to surrender but that surrender was conditional. After the second bomb was dropped, the Japanese gave their unconditional surrender.

Some argue Truman did the second drop to send the Russians a message. I think the US military actually convinced Truman the war was not over yet and to drop to end the war, thus the US military would send that message to the Russians. Just depends on what you want to believe but it is clear a message was sent with that second drop. Some have said the US military gave Truman bad numbers of potential casualties if the US invaded Japan so as to get him to Drop the bomb showing the US military's true power.

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