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Baxter 20
in low-level incendiary raids that burned out over sixteen square miles of the city and killed 86,000 Japanese. LeMay ordered 464 B-29's to repeat the raid on May 25-26.
More Japanese were killed, although the Imperial Palace was spared. In short, Tokyo was no longer considered worthy of atomic destruction. Four other Japanese cities were?Niigata, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kokura. Hiroshima was selected as the most desirable target because intelligence reports (which turned out to be not entirely accurate) indicated that it was the only one of the four possible targets with no Allied prisoner-of-war camp. Niigata, the second primary target (which was not bombed because of weather conditions), held the largest concentration of P.O.W.'s in Japan at that time.
Fortunately, Emperor Hirohito ordered his armed forces to end hostilities on August 16. Had he not, the third atomic bomb would have destroyed Niigata, and the fate of 560 Allied prisoners-of-war would never have been known.


Baxter, J.C Joseph-C.-Baxter-Memoirs-020
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