"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

These were the targets as per the order given to Gen. Carl Spaatz, who
was the CO of the Strategic Air Force Pacific: Hiroshima, Kokura,
Nagasaki,
Niigata

Matt, what is your source for this?

To judge by the radio traffic, Spaatz has nothing to do with
targeting. (It was his headquarters that urged that Tokyo be bombed.)

I've never heard of Niigata, either as city or as target. It's very
small--300,000 in 1950. What was there that made it of interest?

From a bit of persistent Googling, it appears that all four cities were
relatively untouched by previous bombing raids which would allow the true
extent of any damage to demonstrate the power of the atom bomb.
Also, Niigata was/is a large port on the Sea of Japan with a tanker
terminal, an oil refinery, and iron works, all of which were still working.
It got ruled out because it was too far away during the raid.

http://www.dannen.com/decision/targets.html#D

HTH,
Nick