Was dropping the bomb on Hiroshima the correct choice?

Approximately 70,000 deaths occurred in Nagasaki by the end of 1945 due to the atomic bombing.

By August 1945, approximately 60 or more Japanese cities had been substantially burned by conventional bombing.

Emperor Hirohito's recorded surrender broadcast, known as Gyokuon-hōsō, occurred on August 15, 1945.

Hiroshima was chosen as an atomic bomb target partly because it was "undamaged" by conventional bombing, allowing the weapon's effects to be measured.

Initial-blast deaths in Hiroshima are often placed at 70,000–80,000.

Japan's formal surrender took place on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri.

Japan's surrender before Hiroshima

Nagasaki became the secondary target for the atomic bomb after the primary target, Kokura, was obscured by clouds and smoke.

Nagasaki was eventually substituted onto the target list for the atomic bomb after Kyoto was removed.

On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war and invaded Manchuria with approximately 1.5 million troops, destroying the Kwantung Army within days.

Planned invasion of Japan

President Truman's role regarding the initial atomic bomb drop was to not countermand the July 25, 1945 directive.

Secretary of War Henry Stimson personally intervened with President Truman, reportedly twice including at Potsdam in July 1945, to remove Kyoto from the target list for the atomic bomb.

Stimson cited Kyoto's cultural and religious significance and the risk of embittering Japan toward the USSR postwar as reasons for its removal from the target list.

The "Fat Man" plutonium implosion device, with a yield of approximately 21 kilotons, was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

The "Little Boy" bomb detonated at approximately 1,900 feet above the Shima Surgical Clinic in Hiroshima, about 800 feet from its intended aiming point, the Aioi Bridge.

The B-29 Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, dropped the "Little Boy" gun-type uranium-235 weapon over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. local time.

The decision to target undamaged cities like Hiroshima is documented in the declassified Target Committee minutes held by the National Security Archive.

The March 9–10, 1945 firebombing of Tokyo (Operation Meeting House) killed an estimated 80,000–100,000 people in a single night, a toll comparable to or exceeding the immediate Hiroshima toll.

The Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) provides ranges of 90,000–166,000 deaths for Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 deaths for Nagasaki within four months of the bombings.

The yield of the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima is generally estimated at approximately 15 kilotons.

There was no explicit presidential order from Truman to drop the atomic bomb; the operative document was a July 25, 1945 directive from Acting Chief of Staff Gen. Thomas Handy to Gen. Carl Spaatz.