The Target Committee (Kindle Single) Read Online Free

being reshuffled or amended, according to new priorities. Nagasaki had not yet made the cut. These five cities were all “large urban areas of more than three miles in diameter”; “capable of being effectively damaged by the blast”; and “likely to be unattacked by next August.” 25 Of these, Kyoto and Hiroshima were classified as “AA” targets, because they best matched Groves’ criteria put forward prior to the meeting.
    Kyoto, a large industrial city with a population of one million, met most of the committee’s criteria. Thousands of Japanese workers and hundreds of businesses had moved there to escape destruction elsewhere. Furthermore, Kyoto was a cultural and intellectual center, meaning the residents were “more likely to appreciate the significance of such a weapon as the gadget.” Groves ranked Kyoto his preferred no. 1 target, and von Neumann backed the choice of Kyoto as the target for the first atomic bomb.
    Hiroshima, a city of 318,000, held similar appeal. It was “an important army depot and port of embarkation,” the meeting heard, situated in the middle of an urban area “of such a size that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged.” The hills that surrounded the city were “likely to produce a focusing effect which would considerably increase the blast damage.” On top of this, Hiroshima’s location within the Ota River delta meant that it wasnot a good target for firebombs, and would likely remain intact until the atomic bomb was ready.
    The committeemen then heard the case for the remaining targets.
    Yokohama was classified as an “A” target. It was an important urban industrial area and had so far been untouched. Industrial activities there included aircraft manufacture, machine tools, docks, electrical equipment and oil refineries. The committee was informed that:
    As the damage to Tokyo has increased, additional industries have moved to Yokohama. It has the disadvantage of the most important target areas being separated by a large body of water and of being in the heaviest anti-aircraft concentration in Japan. For us it has the advantage as an [alternative] target for use in case of bad weather [and] of being rather far removed from the other targets considered.
     
    Kokura was an ancient castle town that guarded the Straits of Shimonoseki. It hosted one of Japan’s biggest arsenals, surrounded by urban industrial structures, including coal and ore docks, steelworks, extensive railway yards and an electric power plant. Replete with military vehicles, ordnance, heavy naval guns and, reportedly, poison gas, this arsenal made Kokura the most obvious military target. Its dimensions were such that if a bomb were properly placed, “full advantage could be taken of the higher pressures immediately underneath the bomb for destroying the more solid structures,” while at the same time “considerable blast damage could be done to more feeble structures further away.” Like Yokohama, Kokura was classified as an A target.
    Niigata was a port of embarkation on the north-west coast of Honshu. The committee members were told that:
    [The city’s] importance is increasing as other ports are damaged. Machine tool industries are located there and it is a potential center for industrial dispersion. It has oil refineries and storage.
     
    Niigata was classified as a “B” target. Its industrial plants were built of fire-resistant materials, and its houses constructed from heavy plaster, to protect against harsh winters. Hence, it was less combustible.
    The possibility of bombing the Japanese emperor’s palace was also raised – a spectacular idea, they concurred, but militarily impractical. “It was agreed that we should not recommend it . . . [but] should obtain information [that might] determine the effectiveness of our weapon against this target,” the meeting decided. In any case, Tokyo, already firebombed several times, had been struck from an earlier list because an