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The bombing of Hiroshima was unimaginable destruction, and yet did less damage than the very first mass firebombing attack on Japan four months earlier. At thi

The bombing of Hiroshima was unimaginable destruction, and yet did less damage than the very first mass firebombing attack on Japan four months earlier. At this point in the war the Americans had been hitting Japanese cities with 300-500 super heavy bomber firebombing raids for four months. After bombing all the major cities the Americans were now well into their list of twenty five smaller 75,000 to 300,000 population cities. So Hiroshima was just another day in Japan, just another bombed city. The only thing new to the Japanese was that the destruction was from a new kind of bomb, and the following morning an investigation group had been formed. The Japanese leadership met the following morning, discussed that the city was wiped out via a new bomb, and decided to continue fighting while seeing what kind of better terms they could get before surrendering. Which is what they had been doing for quite some time, and continued to do even as the Soviets declared war on them a few days later. News of the attack traveled to the Tokyo quickly. For example, a major Go championship was being played on the outskirts of Hiroshima at the time of the bomb explosion. Although the windows of the building the game were played in were blown out, and one of the players knocked over, gameplay resumed a few hours later and the match was finished. (https://senseis.xmp.net/?AtomicBombGame https://senseis.xmp.net/?AtomicBombGame) It was assumed in Tokyo that day that the players were probably killed, indicating that news of the city being hit had traveled there.

dragontamer 5y ago
Each of those "firebombings" were conducted by 50+ B-29 bombers. When you see so many bombers show up on radar, you dispatch the fighters, you know things are about to happen. When you see a SINGLE B-29 bomber, you ignore it. Its just a scout, and one bomber can't do much damage... Until Hiroshima happened. Its unbelievable: the "rules" of the war changed overnight, in a dramatic way that no one in the Japanese army could have possibly imagined. Every __SINGLE__ bomber "scout" could in fact be, the next nuclear bomb. Japan didn't have the resources to fight against singular bombers anymore. They focused only on the groups of bombers. At this point, it was clear that their air-force was soundly defeated.
- Ericson2314 5y ago
  I don't think the Japanese was defending very well against the firebombs either by that point. > Japan didn't have the resources to fight against singular bombers anymore. They focused only on the groups of bombers. At this point, it was clear that their air-force was soundly defeated. It doesn't really make sense that it is easier to take down 10 bombers than 1, does it? It sounds like you mean the hypothetical where as many bombers were each sent individual to nuke as many cities that would be harder to defend against, because any bombers that got through would do so much more damage. So it's important to differential between potential destruction and actual destruction. The firebombings did incontrovertibly more damage, and after the war both governments had reason to not emphasize this.
  - tehjoker 5y ago
    Curtis LeMay once commented that if the Axis had won he would have been tried for war crimes. Yea, the fire bombing was truly insane. A fictional account based on the author's experience of what occurred in Dresden, Germany can be found in Slaughterhouse V by Kurt Vonnegut. https://www.toptenz.net/brutal-facts-about-general-curtis-lemay.php https://www.toptenz.net/brutal-facts-about-general-curtis-le... This is not to say anything nice about the Axis powers, but more to dispel the illusion that the American military were some kind of heroic force.
  - btilly 5y ago
    It doesn't really make sense that it is easier to take down 10 bombers than 1, does it? If you fire an imprecise weapon at a group of 10 bombers, your odds of hitting one of them can be up to 10x what it is if the same weapon fired at a single bomber. If you have limited ammunition, it is therefore sensible to wait for the group of 10 before firing. So it's important to differential between potential destruction and actual destruction. The firebombings did incontrovertibly more damage, and after the war both governments had reason to not emphasize this. Yeah. The USA invented a weapon (napalm) specifically intended to target the poorest neighborhoods in Japan. And those neighborhoods were so vulnerable exactly because the Japanese government didn't care about the people living there. It was much safer to talk about how big and threatening nuclear bombs were.

dragontamer 5y ago

Each of those "firebombings" were conducted by 50+ B-29 bombers. When you see so many bombers show up on radar, you dispatch the fighters, you know things are about to happen. When you see a SINGLE B-29 bomber, you ignore it. Its just a scout, and one bomber can't do much damage... Until Hiroshima happened. Its unbelievable: the "rules" of the war changed overnight, in a dramatic way that no one in the Japanese army could have possibly imagined. Every __SINGLE__ bomber "scout" could in fact be, the next nuclear bomb. Japan didn't have the resources to fight against singular bombers anymore. They focused only on the groups of bombers. At this point, it was clear that their air-force was soundly defeated.

Ericson2314 5y ago
I don't think the Japanese was defending very well against the firebombs either by that point. > Japan didn't have the resources to fight against singular bombers anymore. They focused only on the groups of bombers. At this point, it was clear that their air-force was soundly defeated. It doesn't really make sense that it is easier to take down 10 bombers than 1, does it? It sounds like you mean the hypothetical where as many bombers were each sent individual to nuke as many cities that would be harder to defend against, because any bombers that got through would do so much more damage. So it's important to differential between potential destruction and actual destruction. The firebombings did incontrovertibly more damage, and after the war both governments had reason to not emphasize this.
- tehjoker 5y ago
  Curtis LeMay once commented that if the Axis had won he would have been tried for war crimes. Yea, the fire bombing was truly insane. A fictional account based on the author's experience of what occurred in Dresden, Germany can be found in Slaughterhouse V by Kurt Vonnegut. https://www.toptenz.net/brutal-facts-about-general-curtis-lemay.php https://www.toptenz.net/brutal-facts-about-general-curtis-le... This is not to say anything nice about the Axis powers, but more to dispel the illusion that the American military were some kind of heroic force.
- btilly 5y ago
  It doesn't really make sense that it is easier to take down 10 bombers than 1, does it? If you fire an imprecise weapon at a group of 10 bombers, your odds of hitting one of them can be up to 10x what it is if the same weapon fired at a single bomber. If you have limited ammunition, it is therefore sensible to wait for the group of 10 before firing. So it's important to differential between potential destruction and actual destruction. The firebombings did incontrovertibly more damage, and after the war both governments had reason to not emphasize this. Yeah. The USA invented a weapon (napalm) specifically intended to target the poorest neighborhoods in Japan. And those neighborhoods were so vulnerable exactly because the Japanese government didn't care about the people living there. It was much safer to talk about how big and threatening nuclear bombs were.