Ckmlb1 said:
Why would it matter that it was nuclear bombs instead of conventional weapons when 86 other cities were successfully attacked in levels equivalent to nuclear bombs in destruction and civilian casualties? Obviously the Japanese were unable to stop the destruciton of cities at this point by the US air power. |
because the japanese weren't so much trying to stop the bombings... as they were kill americans. You've got the motivations wrong.
The US burns a Japanese city to the ground, but loses 5-6 planes in the process. That's what the japanse wanted if you read direct japanese sources at the time. They simply wanted to grind the US down, trading thousands of lives for small amounts of american ones.
When it's just 1 bomb? That makes it near impossible to ensure any casualties.
Attrition tactics became usless... and that was all they had.