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If the japaneese were so willing to surrender why didn't they right after the first bomb? wasn't there a week or two between bombings? Secondly I take with a grain of salt all these generals who wanted to continue conventional fighting. At what cost to Allied GI's?
I do think we could have and should have accomplished the same result [regardless of the reason] had we bombed less populated areas.
As horrible as those bombs were, the tragedy of those bombs has probably preclude any other nuclear bombs for the next 70 years. [fingers crossed for another 70]
Yes the choice of targets and timing was very intentional on the Americans' part. The Japanese leadership was messianic in nature in the same way that the Germans had been with Hitler -- only the Emperor was not nearly as powerful as Hitler, and the Emperor's generals were crazier than Hitler's generals. The choice of targets was partly strategic -- both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were at the center of Japan's war machine.
But the targeting was also psychological. Hiroshima, then Nagasaki -- then the Japanese would conclude that Nagoya or Osaka or Kyoto would be next -- and then Tokyo.
It was the combination of shock AND anticipation that did it. As horrific as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, the Japanese military would absolutely have fought on except the Americans gave the impression that they would keep dropping these bombs every week until all of Japan looked like Hiroshima. It was the thought of THAT that was horrifying enough to get the Emperor to act. And even so, apparently it was touch and go for a while whether the Emperor would be able to overrule the Japanese military -- because the Japanese military did not have surrender in their vocabulary. War and religion were basically the same thing to them.
Won't deny that, but history says that Hiroshima was chosen inflight after choices A & B were deemed to be at risk due to weather. Weather prediction was not much more than a guess at the time. See link.