[andyfox]

Hiroshima did contain a military base, used as a staging area for Southeast Asia. But the bomb was aimed at the center of the city, which had a civilian population of 350,000, not at the military base. The bomb was a continuation of the American policy of bombing civilian populations in Japan to undermine the morale of the enemy.

BTW, in Truman's announcwment of the bombing of Hiroshima, the phrase "Japanese Army base" was not included in any draft of the statement and was apparently inserted by General Groves into the speech at the last minute when he learned that the bomb had found its target.

General LeMay said, after the war, that "There are no innocent civilians. So it doesn't bother me so much to be kiilling the so-called innocent bystanders." The military base was not the reason the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; it provided part of the justification. There were very few cities left in the country that hadn't already been conventionally bombed.