“Things turned much worse for urban Japanese starting in February 1945 when Curtis LeMay began low-level (more accurate), concentrated firebombing of major Japanese cities.”
I was surprised to learn that the bomb sighting was useless for high level bombing due to the air currents over Japan.
Low level bombing was the best way to be accurate with the bomb load.
It didn’t hurt that many houses in Japan were traditional bamboo and burned to the ground in minutes.
Pilots/crew reported the heat was so intense over the target area they saw screen doors floating at 10,000 feet. The turbulence was mind boggling...
I was listening to a talk by Victor Davis Hanson. He said by August 1945, LeMay had about 2000 bombers at his disposal, which were flying daily missions. The largest Japanese cities had been firebombed to the point that 50-70% of their area was destroyed, and LeMay had already started on medium-size cities. LeMay's plan was, with the end of war in Europe, to bring that up to 8,000-10,000 bombers by spring of 1946.
IMHO, the Emperor of Japan was "lucky" the US used atom bombs. If gave him the face, and political cover, to argue to his most hawkish, dead-end elements that unless they surrendered, Japan would simply cease to exist before too long