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Aug 8, 2015 · Just weeks before the US dropped the most powerful weapon mankind has ever known, Nagasaki was not even on a list of target cities for the atomic bomb. In its place was Japan's ancient...
- WW2
It is 70 years since US forces launched the world's first...
- Hiroshima Survivor Recalls Horrors
Thursday marks 70 years to the day since the United States...
- WW2
Aug 2, 2023 · Professor Alex Wellerstein tells us that “Stimson did go to Kyoto at least twice in the 1920s, but neither trip could be reasonably characterized as a honeymoon, and explaining his actions on Kyoto in World War II as a result of a ‘honeymoon’ is trivializing and misleading.”.
- The Atomic Age
- Why Was Kyoto Removed as The Prime Target For The A-Bomb?
- The Realpolitik Reason
- Why Kyoto Was Valued So Highly
- The Importance of Measuring The Impact of The A-Bomb
- Final Thoughts
- Frequently Asked Questions
When you think of the Atomic Age, pictures of mushroom clouds and utter devastation spring to mind. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombsto bring an end to World War II yet Kyoto could easily have been a prime target. There were three days between the two bombs, Hiroshima was an unsuspecting target on 6th August 1945 a...
That Kyoto was spared at the misfortune of Nagasaki can be attributed to a single man. Henry L. Stimson was given a list of cities on 12th June 1945 that were selected for bombing and immediately opposed Kyoto as a target. The city was deemed far too culturally and historically important by Stimson to be wiped off the map and he went even further t...
Stimson was no fool and though he remembered his honeymoon well, he knew that the fallout from Kyoto’s destruction would be difficult to contain. Aside from the concern over losing so much of Kyoto’s religious and cultural significance, there was another Realpolitik reason for sparing the city too. If Kyoto were to suffer utter annihilation from th...
The city of Kyoto was Japan’s imperial capital for over a millennium and was key to traditional Japanese culture. Over 2,000 temples were housed in Kyoto and many would have been destroyed had the A-bomb hit. That includes imperial palaces, Shinto and Buddhist palaces as well as pavilions and royal tombs for ancient Japan’s emperors. Even the stree...
On April 27th 1945, the initial ‘Target Committee’ was held to discuss which cities would be targeted for the A-bomb. There were certain criteria for cities to be named on the list as they had to be of high strategic value and be large urban areas. The size of the cities had to be over three miles in diameter and the A-bomb would use visual targeti...
A target map was created for Kyoto as the potential target for an A-bomb and an aiming point was made. The city was added to the list of ‘reserved areas’ so that it was not to be bombed so the impact of the A-bomb could be measured easier. Thankfully for Kyoto, Henry L.Stimson argued that the city had too much cultural and historical importance to ...
Why Was Hiroshima Picked As A Target For The A-bomb?
Targets for the A-bomb were selected due to their strategic value with Hiroshima seen to have high military importance. The city had also been relatively untouched by any previous bombing raids. That meant that the US military could fully judge the impact of the A-bomb and successfully measure the effects.
Why Wasn’t Tokyo Picked As A Target For The A-bomb?
Tokyo (see also ‘Why Is Tokyo Called Tokyo?‘) was the seat of the Emperor and during the Second World War remained the base for many high-ranking military officers. If Japan was to surrender, it would have been easier to do so without killing the main negotiating parties.
Kyoto has been spared the worst of the war because if its historical value to the world. Henry Stimson who had a big vote in which cities in Japan were to be bombed during WW2 refused to bomb Kyoto for this reason, and also for the more personal reason that he visited Kyoto (once for his honeymoon) and didn’t want to ruin his beautiful ...
During World War II U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, recalling his visits to Kyōto, struck the city from the list of targets for aerial bombing. Its cultural treasures intact, it maintains a special place in the hearts of the Japanese and, increasingly, in the eyes of the world.
Apr 4, 2023 · Japan During World War II. A busy street in Hiroshima before the atomic bombing. At the outbreak of World War II, Japan’s population had reached approximately 72 million people in a country roughly the size of California. Having expanded by almost 20 million people since 1920, when the first official census was taken, the Japanese people ...
In 1945, at the end of World War II, the Target Committee of the United States Manhattan Project placed Kyoto at the top of the list of targets for the dropping of the atomic bomb. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson adamantly refused to bomb Kyoto because it "was the ancient capital of Japan, a historical city, and one that was of great ...
