Why did us attack on hiroshima instead of Tokyo?

Answer 1

Believe it or not, the idea wasn't to cause maximum damage and death. Dropping the bomb was intended to be a demonstration of the frightening power that had been discovered and to prove that the United States WOULD use the weapon to end the war. Failure to use the weapon might have resulted in the deaths of over a million Allied troops.

However it is now generally agreed that the US did not exhaust the apparent diplomatic options available. Rather, the bomb was used for political reasons in the US and to intimidate the Soviet Union. It is also important to note that targeting civilians was not abnormal for either side during WW2. More civilians died in the American-led fire-bombing of Tokyo than in the two atomic bombings combined.

In regards to the specific target, using the atomic bomb on Tokyo would have produced incredible numbers of casualties and material loss. However, General Leslie Groves, the man in charge of picking potential targets for the bomb, had spent time in Tokyo before the war, and was apprehensive to authorize the destruction of the city. Also, the city had already been thoroughly bombed out.

The third US atomic bomb, which was being readied and could have been dropped sometime after August 19, may indeed have been used on Tokyo as an ultimate impetus for Japan's capitulation. But the city had already been devastated by fire-bombing raids, and killing the Japanese leaders (to disrupt their defenses) would also have made surrender more difficult.

Answer 2

At the end of World War II, few questioned Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most Americans accepted the obvious reasoning: the atomic bombings brought the war to a more timely end. They did not have a problem with over one hundred thousand of the enemy being killed. After all, the Japanese attacked America, and not the other way around. In later years, however, many have begun to question the conventional wisdom of "Truman was saving lives," putting forth theories of their own. However, when one examines the issue with great attention to the results of the atomic bombings and compares these results with possible alternatives to using said bombs, the line between truth and fiction begins to clear. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan was for the purpose of saving lives and ending the war quickly in order to prevent a disastrous land invasion.