Two atomic bombs on Japan. Where the bombs were dropped? On military or civilians?

Question

I heard they were dropped with aim to kill as more civilian people as possible.

Answer 1

Different time and a different type of warfare. When Pearl was hit by the Japanese, they did not just hit military targets. They bombed houses, Churches, and Hospitals as well. Truman made the hardest choice I believe any President has ever had to make to save American lives. We didn't start the war but we finished it.

Answer 2

My father took part in the fire bombing of Tokyo. He was a bombardier on a B29. He did about 25 bombing missions all over Japan in late 1944 til the end of the war. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were never bombed. They were industrial cities that made military equipment for the Japanese. They were spared in case President Truman decided to use the Atomic Bomb. After the invasion of Okinawa, which was the largest invasion of World War ll even bigger than D-Day, it was decided that if we invaded the home islands of Japan the American loses would be more then one million. President Truman made the difficult decision to drop the only two Atomic Bombs we had. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were targeted for the first and only times. The war ended without an invasion and about one week after the bombs were dropped. The use of these weapons was justified because it ended the war with minimum casualties on both sides. Revisionist historians make us out to be the bad guy for using the bombs. If I were Truman, I would have done it.

Answer 3

The two atomic bombs, dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were not dropped to kill as many people as possible, though this was a side effect. The main goal was the destroy the two industrial powerhouses of Japan and instill fear in the Japanese people, as well as prove that we had the weapons. The United States, at the time, claimed we had hundreds of them, when, in fact, we had three (one of which was used in a test bomb). By dropping two bombs, we shows the Japanese that it was possible that America had made them and that America had more than one and, more importantly, more than one type. This led to a swift surrender, mainly due to pressure from the civilian sector of Japan's government.

Answer 4

The only two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The firebombings of Japanese cities, OPERATION MATTERHORN, was far more destructive to civilians than the atomic bombs. More people died in the fire-bombing of Tokyo than in both atomic bomb blasts.

Hundreds and thousands of firebombs were dropped all over major Japanese cities like: Kawasaki, Noguya, Yokohama, Kobe, Yawata, and a dozen others causing massive loss of civilian life (and loss of industrial/military targets).

Yet the idea of one bomb - one city was unique, and the newly developed atomic bomb would save the lives of many American pilots from making dozens of sorties with the chance of being shot down by the enemy.

Answer 5

They were dropped on small industrial cities - arguably legitimate military targets, because they produced war materials. Both cities were intentionally not targetted by ongoing conventional bombing campaigns so that the devestating power of the nukes would be made very clear.

If the intention was to maximize civilian casualties, much larger and more densely populated targets could have been chosen. The intention was to force a Japanese surrender, without the bloodbath of an ivasion, which would likely have cost millions of lives on both sides. It succeeded.

Answer 6

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both were major industrial cities and vital to Japans war production.
Interesting note; Nagasaki was a secondary target, the second atom bomb was heading for Kyoto, but the target changed due to bad weather.
Tokyo was the scene of a massive incendiary bombing raid that did more damage and killed more people than both atomic bombs combined.
These attacks were designed to break the morale of the Japanese Nation and destroy their faith in their god-emperor.
If the emperor thought that his nation could still fight, the war would have been much bloodier, and lasted for several more months or years. Those mass destructions inflicted upon all the axis nations made the war so horrible that it ran out of steam.
Good or Bad, War for Peace, people died.

Answer 7

The goal of the A-Bombs was to demoralize the Japanese to surrender. The bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both had military structures, but the target was the city itself.

Answer 8

If not for the bombs we would have had to invade. Japanese written policy was to execute all POWs, Korean and Chinese labors in the country if that happened. There were over 300,000 of them and the bomb saved their lives.
The US would have invaded southern Japan, set up air bases, and continued to bomb the rest of Japan. The bombing of Tokyo killed over 70,000, that was more than either atomic bomb did.

The cities had military targets in them, but the bomb destroyed the rest of the cities as well.

Answer 9

Counterquestion. How could the jap make mass murders in china? cutting the wombs of pragnent woman open throw the fetus right into a cooking pot and rigidity the mum to consume it? after this she have been given raped. that's no remoted incident it handed off thousend of cases (think of that for a 2d) they used chemical weapons, bioweapons and so on. Their cruelty became so heavy while comments of this arrived germany the officers positioned a lid in this by way of fact they the place specific while hitler heared that he could have broken with the japs. besides this, there the place 2 options. an entire scale invasion the place hundreds of thousands could have died. And a blockage the place returned hundreds of thousands could have died a terrible demise. The atomic bombs made peace in 2 days, the people who died by way of fact of that are unlucky yet they could have died a plenty extra grizzly ineffective if the nuke could in no way been dropped. human beings demonize the Atomic bomb. yet all that it gave humanity became Peace. Peace with Russia, Peace with pakistan and India, Peace in Isreal and so on. In entire the atomic bomb saved us all. by way of fact in a popular conflict, extra human beings will die. Human nature won't be able to be defeated, as long one factor thinks it could win there continually would be conflict. The atomic bomb made this impossible. In a nuclear conflict all human beings dies.

Answer 10

Actually, the bombs were dropped on war factories. But as the factories were located in densely populated areas...

Also, the Japanese used cottage industry to manufacture many things for the war industry. by bombing the cities, they destroyed many small workshops and factories where war material were manufactured.

Did you know that towards the end of the war, the Japanese ran so short on material, that they were using wooden bullets? (A serious violation of the Geneva Convention). A cousin of my Father was shot through the elbow with one. He had splinters working to the surface the rest of his life.