There were over 100,000 Japanese civilian casualties in fire bombing raids of Tokyo. Conventional weapons wreaked far more casualties than those two bombs.
But yet, those raids seriously impeded Japanese war materiel production because at the time, production of a long list of these items were done in small shops located in the city. The Japanese--if they had been just a bit smarter--would have safely hidden most of their war production in underground, bomb-proof factories like the Germans did later in World War II.
One of the things that always bothered me was why after the horrific experience of uncontrolled fires from the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 the Japanese government allowed cities to be rebuilt mostly of wood again. You'd think they would have mandated more fireproof structures....
>>There were over 100,000 Japanese civilian casualties in fire bombing raids of Tokyo. Conventional weapons wreaked far more casualties than those two bombs.
And Dresden was also horrific....