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The targeting of Hiroshima was one of those decisions that "stinks". No good explanation has ever been given for that one. Many people have suspicions about why it was selected, but again I have yet to hear or read a really good one. Kyoto, Tokyo, or about a dozen other places were probably better targets if the goal was a quick knock out punch.

By the end of the war, Japan had been in a blockade for quite some time. If Olympic and Cornet had been launched, they would have been started in November (over six months later). When you look at what the Marines would have faced in the landings, even six months would have not been enough. A buddy of mine married a Japanese national (that shocked her parents a bit!) and her parents told her they were prepared to fight with bamboo poles to defend against the US invasion. How many would have done that and other suicide attacks will never be known.

One last thing. If a full blockade had been tried, the controversy today would be that we "Should have used atomic weapons, as that would have resulted in less loss of life." Starvation is not a nice way to go either.

If the real goal was a quick knockout punch, the ideal target would have been the emperor's residence. And the government buildings in Tokyo.

Nothing would bring a nation like that to its knees faster than seeing a supposedly immortal demi-god like the emperor vanish in a column of fire.