Why were the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki targeted for the dropping of the atomic bomb during World War 2?

Answer 1

There were several considerations in choosing the site for the first bomb. * The target should be an urban area of at least three miles diameter; * The target should be capable of being effectively damaged by a blast; * The target should not have been a previous target of conventional bombs, so that the damage from the single new bomb could be evaluated (both by the US and the Japanese governments) on its own. Hiroshima met all these criteria, and in addition was a significant military site. Nagasaki was actually not the first choice for the second bomb; the city of Kokura was the intended target and the bomber made three passes over Kokura before being directed to the secondary target of Nagasaki due to heavy cloud cover at the primary site. Nagasaki was a major Imperial Japanese Navy port and, though it had been bombed previously, had not suffered extensive damage.

Answer 2

They expected a high amount of military and civilian casualties if they invaded mainland Japan, so they chose what they seen as the best way to end the war. The use of the atomic bomb is something many people will never forget in U.S history, but they seen it as justified at that time.

There is also belief they used the Atomic bomb so Japan would hastily surrender to U.S, making it where the Soviets didn't get much "plunder" from Japan. Basically, U.S was trying to limit any possible chance of a communist expansion in Japan (Unfortunately, they still got North Korea). This is a belief, I am not sure if it is fact.

Answer 3

The target selection was subject to the following criteria:

• The target was larger than three miles in diameter and was an important target in a large urban area.
• The blast would create effective damage.
• The target was unlikely to be attacked by August 1945. "Any small and strictly military objective should be located in a much larger area subject to blast damage in order to avoid undue risks of the weapon being lost due to bad placing of the bomb."

However, it was not the Japanese did not decide to blow up Hiroshima: The United States did.

Answer 4

Hiroshima was chosen as a spot to drop the Atomic bomb because, it was a major military post and supply depot. The U.S. didn't want to take the chance of Hiroshima retaliating.

Answer 5

The atom bomb was dropped in Japan because we wanted to put Japan out of WW2. More precisely, we dropped 2 bombs. We dropped them on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. After that, Japan surrendered.

Answer 6

The U.S. wanted to end the war ASAP, and didn't really want to fight the Japanese.

Answer 7

because the allies were attacked by the japanese in 1945 at pearl harbor so we bombed them to get them back.