How were the A-bomb targets selected?
Presumably, A-bombs were used against Japan because the United States wanted to:
- Measure the power of A-bombs, whose development required vast expenditures of money and labor.
- Force Japan to surrender as quickly as possible; if the war was prolonged and the U.S. troops had to invade the Japanese mainland, many U.S. soldiers would have been lost.
- Ensure that the United State secured a stronger post-war political position than the Soviet Union.
In addition, the United States presumably selected A-bombing target cities:
- Whose destruction would discourage the Japanese from continuing the war.
- Where Japanese troops and military factories were located.
- That had not been damaged by air raids, enabling accurate assessment of the power and effects of the A-bomb.
On the basis of the above conditions, 17 cities (including Tokyo and Kyoto) were initially selected as candidates, from which number Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki were ultimately selected as the A-bombing targets.
In the 16th century, after the arrival of Portuguese ships, Nagasaki began to thrive as a base for Japanese trade with foreign countries, and the number of Christians began to rise in the City.
However, Christianity was later banned by the Edo shogunate, which feared a religion that held all people to be equal before God. The Edo shogunate also prohibited communication and trade with foreign countries other than the Netherlands and China. Only these two countries were permitted access to Japan at Nagasaki, since they promised not to propagate Christianity. For this reason, Nagasaki developed as a trading port through which foreign cultures were introduced.
During the Meiji Period (1868–1912), in response to the development of maritime transportation, shipyards were built in Nagasaki. During World War II, battleships and armaments were produced in Nagasaki.
Among the possible reasons Nagasaki was selected as a target for A-bombing are:
- Since Nagasaki had not been severely damaged by air raids, it would serve for assessing the force of the A-bomb.
- Nagasaki was home to many shipyards, steelworks and armaments factories.