{"id":9766807,"date":"2026-08-08T11:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=9766807"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:48:19","slug":"kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"La ciudad que encabeza la lista"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p><em>Una extensi\u00f3n de <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/serie-sobre-la-carrera-por-la-bomba-atomica\/\">La carrera por la bomba<\/a>, our ten-part focus series. Part 9 flew the atomic missions; this piece goes back three months earlier, into the room where a handful of men decided which cities would live and which would die \u2014 and why the city at the top of the list was the only one the list saved.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>Los Alamos, New Mexico, 10 May 1945. The war in Europe has been over for two days. In J. Robert Oppenheimer&rsquo;s office, a committee of generals, physicists and one of the greatest mathematicians alive \u2014 John von Neumann, whom readers of this series met fleeing Budapest in Part 2 \u2014 spends two days grading Japanese cities the way examiners grade papers.<\/p>\r\n<p>Their minutes, declassified decades later, read with a chill no dramatization improves. Targets should be important urban areas more than three miles across. They should be capable of being damaged effectively by blast. And they should be unlikely to have been attacked by August \u2014 undamaged, so that the new weapon&rsquo;s work could be measured cleanly on virgin ground.<\/p>\r\n<p>Five names came out of the grading. Yokohama: A. Kokura Arsenal: A. Niigata: B. And two cities rated AA \u2014 reserved, in effect, for the first atomic bombs. One was Hiroshima. The other, at the very top of the committee&rsquo;s list, was Kyoto: the ancient capital, the city of sixteen hundred temples, home to a million people. Nobody in Kyoto knew. Nearly nobody in Washington objected. The story of the one man who did \u2014 and would not stop \u2014 is the strangest mercy in the history of air power.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border:1px solid #e0e0e0;border-radius:8px;padding:20px 24px;margin:28px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts: Choosing the Targets<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>5 targets rated<\/strong> on 11 May 1945: Kyoto AA, Hiroshima AA, Yokohama A, Kokura Arsenal A, Niigata B<\/li><li><strong>1,000,000<\/strong> \u2014 Kyoto&rsquo;s population in the committee&rsquo;s minutes; Hiroshima&rsquo;s at the bombing: ~340,000&ndash;350,000<\/li><li><strong>15 May 1945<\/strong> \u2014 Kyoto, Hiroshima and Niigata placed on the &ldquo;reserved&rdquo; list: spared firebombing to keep them measurable<\/li><li><strong>~30 May 1945<\/strong> \u2014 Secretary of War Stimson strikes Kyoto from the atomic list; Groves lobbies for months to restore it<\/li><li><strong>24&ndash;25 July 1945<\/strong> \u2014 Nagasaki added in Kyoto&rsquo;s place; the strike order names Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, Nagasaki<\/li><li><strong>63 million+<\/strong> warning leaflets dropped on Japan \u2014 none warned of the atomic bomb before Hiroshima<\/li><li><strong>1954<\/strong> \u2014 the Hague Convention on protecting cultural property in war, the era&rsquo;s institutional lesson<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Committee and Its Criteria<\/h2>\r\n<p>The Target Committee existed because General Leslie Groves \u2014 the Manhattan Project&rsquo;s driving engine, familiar from Part 5 \u2014 wanted target selection handled with the same industrial rigour as plutonium chemistry. Chaired by his deputy Thomas Farrell, staffed by scientists including von Neumann and the British physicist William Penney, it met three times through the spring of 1945. Its logic was explicitly not the logic of ordinary bombing: the bomb&rsquo;s purpose was as much demonstration as destruction, and the minutes say so with unnerving candour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;It was agreed that psychological factors in the target selection were of great importance. Two aspects of this are (1) obtaining the greatest psychological effect against Japan and (2) making the initial use sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it is released.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Target Committee minutes<\/strong> &mdash; Los Alamos, 10&ndash;11 May 1945<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>On those criteria Kyoto was, in the committee&rsquo;s eyes, close to perfect: a great intact urban basin, an industrial refuge into which factories and workers were being evacuated from burned cities, and \u2014 in the minutes&rsquo; most quoted, most disturbing line \u2014 a city whose people were &ldquo;more highly intelligent and hence better able to appreciate the significance of the weapon.&rdquo; Even the Emperor&rsquo;s palace in Tokyo was weighed that May, and set aside as a decision above the committee&rsquo;s station. Hiroshima earned its AA on colder physics: an army depot and port in a compact urban bowl, with adjacent hills &ldquo;likely to produce a focussing effect&rdquo; that would considerably increase the blast damage.<\/p>\r\n<p>Then came the paradox that decided which Japanese cities survived the summer. To keep the chosen targets measurable, they were placed on a reserved list \u2014 protected, by order of the Joint Chiefs, from Curtis LeMay&rsquo;s incendiary campaign (Part 8 of this series). Being condemned was the only thing in 1945 Japan that kept a city intact. Kyoto was spared the fire because it was promised the atom.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Secretary Says No<\/h2>\r\n<p>Henry L. Stimson was 77 years old in the spring of 1945: Secretary of War, former Secretary of State, a Republican grandee serving a Democratic president, and the senior civilian steward of the Manhattan Project. In late May, Groves came to his office on other business; Stimson demanded to see the target list. Groves tried to stall \u2014 it was, he suggested, an operational military matter. The old man&rsquo;s reply, preserved in Groves&rsquo; own memoir, ended the argument before it began.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/henry-stimson-1929-portrait.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"flex-shrink:0\"><img data-opt-id=642585549  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/henry-stimson-1929-portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Henry L. Stimson\" style=\"width:96px;height:96px;border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center;display:block;border:2px solid #ddd\"><\/a><div><em>&ldquo;This is a question I am settling myself. Marshall is not making that decision.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Henry L. Stimson<\/strong> &mdash; to General Groves, late May 1945, as recorded in Groves&rsquo; memoir Now It Can Be Told<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Stimson heard the name at the top of the list and struck it off on the spot \u2014 then pulled a startled General Marshall in from the next office to witness the decision. Groves, by his own account, &ldquo;continued on a number of occasions afterward to urge its inclusion, but Mr. Stimson was adamant.&rdquo; The general wanted Kyoto for exactly the reason the Secretary refused it: it was large enough, and intact enough, to yield &ldquo;complete knowledge of the effects of an atomic bomb.&rdquo; The tug-of-war ran all the way to the Potsdam conference in July, where Groves had a final plea cabled to Stimson \u2014 who took the question directly to President Truman, twice, and cabled back that the president concurred. There was, Groves wrote, no further talk about Kyoto after that.<\/p>\r\n<p>Why did Stimson care? The romantic version \u2014 that he had honeymooned in Kyoto \u2014 is a myth, patiently dismantled by the nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein: Stimson married in 1893 and first saw Kyoto as a 59-year-old tourist in 1926. The documented reasons are two, and they are not the same. One is the reason Groves recorded: Stimson had walked the old capital, and would not go down in history as the man who erased a thousand years of Japanese civilisation. The other is in Stimson&rsquo;s own diary from Potsdam, and it is pure geopolitics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;He was particularly emphatic in agreeing with my suggestion that if elimination was not done, the bitterness which would be caused by such a wanton act might make it impossible during the long post-war period to reconcile the Japanese to us in that area rather than to the Russians.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Henry L. Stimson<\/strong> &mdash; diary entry on his meeting with President Truman, Potsdam, 24 July 1945<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Destroying Kyoto, in other words, might hand postwar Japan to the Soviet Union. Heritage and grand strategy pointed, for once, in the same direction \u2014 and a million people who never learned there had been a vote were saved by it. For decades, many in Japan credited the American art historian Langdon Warner with the rescue, and raised monuments to him in Kyoto and Kamakura; the scholarship since has quietly moved the credit to the Secretary of War.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e6FRbiB8Ozw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:6px 0 0\">American History Hotline on the city America refused to bomb: the Target Committee, Stimson&rsquo;s veto, and the myth of the honeymoon.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Unspared<\/h2>\r\n<p>Every act of mercy in a target list is arithmetic: sparing one city promotes another. With Kyoto struck off, Hiroshima moved to the head of the order \u2014 the largest city in Japan, excepting Kyoto, still undamaged by American raids. The aiming point chosen was the T-shaped Aioi Bridge, unmistakable from 31,000 feet; Part 9 of this series describes what followed it on the morning of 6 August.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2110111914  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/aioi-bridge-hiroshima-prewar.jpg\" alt=\"The T-shaped Aioi Bridge in Hiroshima before the war\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The T that could be seen from 31,000 feet: Hiroshima&rsquo;s Aioi Bridge before the war. Photo: public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>One persistent legend deserves the same treatment as the honeymoon: the warning that never was. American aircraft showered Japan with over 63 million leaflets that summer naming cities marked for conventional bombing \u2014 but Hiroshima was not on the leaflet lists, and no leaflet anywhere mentioned an atomic bomb before 6 August. The leaflets that did describe the new weapon were printed after Hiroshima, and reached Nagasaki only after that city, too, had been destroyed. The reserved cities were kept pristine in every sense, including innocence.<\/p>\r\n<p>And Nagasaki \u2014 the city fate treated most strangely of all \u2014 entered the story only in the final week. It was added to the strike order on 24&ndash;25 July, filling the slot Kyoto vacated; the order named Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki and instructed that additional bombs be delivered &ldquo;as soon as made ready.&rdquo; On 9 August, as Part 9 recounted, Bockscar found the primary target Kokura hidden under cloud and drifting smoke \u2014 some of it deliberately made by steelworkers burning coal tar \u2014 and after three failed runs turned south. A twenty-second break in the overcast decided the rest. Nagasaki died as the backup&rsquo;s backup, on a list it had joined fifteen days earlier, under a bomb aimed three kilometres wide.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=544335914  decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/nagasaki-cloud-from-koyagi-jima.jpg\" alt=\"The Nagasaki mushroom cloud seen from Koyagi-jima island\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The cloud over Nagasaki seen from Koyagi-jima, 9 August 1945 \u2014 the bomb that fell in Kyoto&rsquo;s place. Photo: public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZEO7pddV9fk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:6px 0 0\">The BBC&rsquo;s dramatisation of Truman&rsquo;s ultimatum and the decision process, from its Hiroshima documentary.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Shield Over the Temples<\/h2>\r\n<p>Truman&rsquo;s own Potsdam diary shows how imperfectly even the man giving the order understood what had been chosen. &ldquo;I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children,&rdquo; he wrote on 25 July, adding that the world&rsquo;s leader &ldquo;cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.&rdquo; Hiroshima held perhaps 25,000 soldiers among a third of a million civilians. The historian&rsquo;s consensus, argued most carefully by Wellerstein, is that the Kyoto conversations left Truman genuinely believing the first target was &ldquo;purely military&rdquo; \u2014 a misconception that survived until the casualty reports arrived, after which he halted further atomic strikes without his express order, telling his cabinet he could not stomach killing &ldquo;all those kids.&rdquo;<\/p>\r\n<p>Kyoto today is the only city on that May shortlist whose prewar self still exists \u2014 Kiyomizu-dera&rsquo;s wooden stage, the Golden Pavilion, the streets the Target Committee measured for blast radii, walked now by tourists who mostly never learn how close it came. The war that nearly consumed it did leave one institutional monument: the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the world&rsquo;s attempt to write Stimson&rsquo;s veto into permanent law. It is an imperfect shield, as every war since has shown. But it exists because, once, in a war of total destruction, the man with the list said no \u2014 and the only city the atomic list ever saved is the one that stood at its top.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qRDMjZkt4mw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:6px 0 0\">A concise telling of why Kyoto was spared \u2014 the reserved list, the veto, and the aftermath.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p><em>Sources: Target Committee minutes of 10&ndash;11 May 1945 (via dannen.com), Leslie Groves: Now It Can Be Told (1962), Stimson diaries via Alex Wellerstein (nuclearsecrecy.com, &ldquo;The Kyoto Misconception&rdquo;), Truman&rsquo;s Potsdam diary, the Handy directive of 25 July 1945, Atomic Heritage Foundation, Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Art\u00edculos relacionados: La carrera por la bomba (Serie)<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/serie-sobre-la-carrera-por-la-bomba-atomica\/\">Resumen de la serie: las diez partes<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/misiones-atomicas-de-hiroshima-y-nagasaki\/\">Parte 9: Cuarenta y tres segundos sobre Hiroshima<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/produccion-de-aviones-de-la-segunda-guerra-mundial-antes-y-ahora\/\">Extension: When America Built a Bomber Every Hour<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>C\u00f3mo se eligieron los objetivos de la bomba at\u00f3mica: los fr\u00edos criterios del Comit\u00e9 de Objetivos, el veto de Stimson, el mito de la luna de miel y por qu\u00e9 Kioto se salv\u00f3.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9765939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9766807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:1052\/h:592\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1052\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tamika Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tamika Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tamika Johnson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/88afb39d0a02d6de10537662492fb68d\"},\"headline\":\"The City at the Top of the List\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1940,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; Legends\",\"Military Aviation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg\",\"width\":1052,\"height\":592,\"caption\":\"Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto, hand-coloured photograph by Adolfo Farsari, c. 1880s\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The City at the Top of the List\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine\",\"description\":\"for those interested in flying military jets and aviation related  topics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"MiGFlug GmbH\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\/\\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\\/cb:0e0_.b970\\/w:897\\/h:278\\/q:mauto\\/ig:avif\\/https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/06\\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\\/cb:0e0_.b970\\/w:897\\/h:278\\/q:mauto\\/ig:avif\\/https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/06\\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png\",\"width\":897,\"height\":278,\"caption\":\"MiGFlug GmbH\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/MiGFlug\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/migflug\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/migflug\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/MiGFlug\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/migflug.com\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.ch\\\/migflug\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/88afb39d0a02d6de10537662492fb68d\",\"name\":\"Tamika Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tamika Johnson\"},\"description\":\"Tamika Johnson tells the human stories of aviation \u2014 the pilots, pioneers and characters behind the machines.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/es\\\/author\\\/tamikajohnson\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto","description":"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto","og_description":"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.","og_url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/","og_site_name":"Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/","article_published_time":"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1052,"height":592,"url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:1052\/h:592\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tamika Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@migflug","twitter_site":"@migflug","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tamika Johnson","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/"},"author":{"name":"Tamika Johnson","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/88afb39d0a02d6de10537662492fb68d"},"headline":"The City at the Top of the List","datePublished":"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/"},"wordCount":1940,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg","articleSection":["History &amp; Legends","Military Aviation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/","name":"Kyoto and the Atomic Bomb: The Target List Veto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-08T09:48:18+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-08T09:48:19+00:00","description":"Kyoto topped the atomic bomb target list in May 1945. How Stimson&rsquo;s veto spared it, why the honeymoon story is a myth, and what Nagasaki paid.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/kiyomizu-dera-kyoto-farsari-1880s.jpg","width":1052,"height":592,"caption":"Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto, hand-coloured photograph by Adolfo Farsari, c. 1880s"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/kyoto-spared-atomic-bomb-target-selection\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The City at the Top of the List"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#website","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/","name":"Postcombusti\u00f3n - Revista de MiGFlug","description":"Para aquellos interesados en pilotar aviones militares y temas relacionados con la aviaci\u00f3n.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization","name":"MiGFlug GmbH","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:897\/h:278\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:897\/h:278\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png","width":897,"height":278,"caption":"MiGFlug GmbH"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/","https:\/\/x.com\/migflug","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/migflug\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MiGFlug","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/migflug.com\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.ch\/migflug\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/88afb39d0a02d6de10537662492fb68d","name":"Tamika Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0aec3158aff3d47ac0cba1da9c62fe9994a454e4e6a14b6260de35a598abdb4d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tamika Johnson"},"description":"Tamika Johnson narra las historias humanas de la aviaci\u00f3n: los pilotos, los pioneros y los personajes que se esconden tras las m\u00e1quinas.","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/author\/tamikajohnson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9766807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9767132,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766807\/revisions\/9767132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9765939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9766807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9766807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9766807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}