>>17840907>>17840931A large portion of the Japanese army was stationed in Hiroshima. Approximately 40,000 to be precise. Nagasaki housed loads of industry and ship-buildings yards.
News flash: when you're fighting a war you attack more than just military bases. You attack anything that allows that country to make war. The United States attacked a city that housed 40k Japanese troops and a city that was producing the weapons to arm them. Civilian casualties is an unfortunate side-effect.
I'm not going to deny that the United States wanted the most devastation possible with the nukes; that's why those cities were targets as well. They were untouched by American bombers unlike Tokyo and other large cities. They wanted to show Japan, "We have the means to wipe you off the earth. Surrender now."
Civilian casualties suck, but they're a part of war. They're especially going to happen when your country is waging total war like Japan was. According to the total war doctrine Japan was operating under, the 'pedestrians' did have shit all to do with the war. They were being actively trained to fight and kill invaders. Every single person on Japan was being indoctrinated and trained to kill allied forces. Whether or not you accept this is irrelevant. It's a fact.
That being said, I love how everybody gets their panties in a bunch of the nukes but totally forgets about the fire bombings of city like Tokyo. That raid alone killed more than both nukes combined and in a arguably more gruesome way. People were jumping in the rivers to avoid the flames and ended up being cooked alive because the rivers were boiling.
Bottom line: War is hell. Avoid it until no other option is available.
