It should also be remembered that the firebombings of Tokyo by conventional means caused perhaps even more damage and civilian casualties. So I think that in t

It should also be remembered that the firebombings of Tokyo by conventional means caused perhaps even more damage and civilian casualties. So I think that in the context they simply didn't care about minimising casualties, perhaps even the opposite. They wanted to show that they now had a weapon that made annihilating a whole city much more efficient and practical, and that they were going to use it until Japan surrendered.