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Sparing Tokyo worked because Japan didn’t have the capability to retaliate. Any launching during the mid-to-late Cold War would have been a massive first strike

Sparing Tokyo worked because Japan didn’t have the capability to retaliate. Any launching during the mid-to-late Cold War would have been a massive first strike and possibly a retaliation at the same scale. In the early Cold War it may have been a reasonable strategy, but as another poster notes that’s a very narrow window for changing how a city grows. Even if there was an effect, I’d be very surprised if the signal wasn’t wiped out first by railroads and then by cars.

gpderetta 6y ago
Also Japan was hit by bombs in the low tens of kilotons. Modern bombs are in the megaton range.
- andi999 6y ago
  Tsar Bomb has around 50 Megatons. Radius of total destruction 35km.
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    scary, but not entirely relevant. most modern launch systems carry (sometimes multiple) warheads with a much lower yield: 500 kt or less.
ClumsyPilot 6y ago
Tokyo and other Japanese cities were burned to the ground with mass firebombing, not spared. The goal was to get Japan to surrender, and Emperor was considering it. His generals were fanatically opposed, and if the Emperor were to be killed by the bomb, they would fight to the last man, woman and child. US administration could then pick it's poison - leave Japan as is, suffer and inflict massive casualties from a ground invasion, or commit nuclear holocaust.