Cub Driver wrote:

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?

Kokura as I recall had one of the last oil refineries
still
functioning in Japan, and I think it was bombed
in the
"thousand-plane" raid of Aug 14/15, with the
last bombs falling after
midnight local time, when Japan had dispatched
its surrender message
to Switzerland.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com
Day One by Peter Wyden. It quotes the message to Spaatz from Hap Arnold
giving the targets. It also noted that "further instructions will be issued
concerning targets in addition to those above." The order came from Hap Arnold
as Groves wasn't in the AAF chain of command. Niigata was listed as a target
because it simply hadn't been hit yet. Kokura BTW had Japan's largest chemical
weapons production facility (among other industry). It would have been hit
likely on the 16th or later if Fat Man no. 2 had been shipped. Tibbets had
vowed after Sweeney's mission that if a third strike was needed, he would
lead it.

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