Replies

kyoto was protected during the whole war by stimpson. the kinkakuji, ginkakuji, gosho, etc are important parts of japanese history, kyoto is lndlocked, and it would make japanese considerably more resistant during occupation if it were bombed. niigata is on the china side of japan, and from the pacific is difficult to bomb. kokura is landbound, and if america had to invade, would be a useless bombing. i hate to be a blatent apologist against this anti-christian conspiracy theory, but my suggestion is that hiroshima and nagasaki were not bombed for present effect but a future one. with the rabid shinto nationalism at that time, if the japanese were not broken by the two bombs, the invasion of japan would be improved by bombing good harbors and then sending masses of ships to land in them. hiroshima is far enough from kobe and osaka to entrench, but close enough to be convenient. nagasaki is the same with kitakyushu and a natural choice; inconvienient for the japanese to attack, as it is a seperate island from honshu, and once america was entrenched, impossible to stop their attack. if hiroshima was lost, the railroad lines do not extend to kyushu, and therefore nagasaki is a good choice. with this in mind, one can understand that nagasaki was bombed as a softening measure for imminent invasion if hirohito did not break. im sure there were a lot of anti-nazis in dresden too....