[ The only thing that I do not understand is, why Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Why not Tokyo, centered on the “false emperor’s” palace? ]
Had they nuked Hirohito all the Japanese that believed in him would have probably gone crazy to Martyred themselves and it would have gotten very ugly even if we hadn’t stepped a boot onto the main island. You would have had several million Japanese who would be willing kamikaze pilots/ suicide bombers / banzai shooters....
In order to save face and his people the two nukes forced the almost god-like in the Japanese eyes Emperor to humble himself in-front of the rest of the world in order to save his own people from being burned to a crisp in future atomic bombings. The event led to the Emperor becoming a ceremonial position and the social evolution of the Japanese people to move into modern times.
“The only thing that I do not understand is, why Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Why not Tokyo, centered on the “false emperor’s” palace?”
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also industrialized cities, supporting the war machine of Japan
thank you for a more complete answer