So let me get this straight; in order to clear a country of a despotism,
you have to try to annihilate at least two cities full of thousands of
civilians?

That's a pretty good statement of the situation as it faced Truman and
his advisors. All things considered, they decided that it was the best
and least bloody option, and they accepted it. Happily it worked.

Note that Hiroshima in addition to its civilians contained the
headquarters of the Second Group Army, which in contemporary American
terms would be called a Command. It was responsible for southern
Honshu and Kyushu. So if the Americans and British Commonwealth troops
had to make their landing on November 1, it would have been against an
army that had lost its entire headquarters staff.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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