The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. A second followed in Nagasaki three days later. And if the winds of fate blew in a slightly different direction, it's possible the city of Kyoto would've been forever affiliated with the atomic bomb.
BBC reports how military personnel were very interested in Kyoto as a target. Alex Wellerstein, historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology, explained, "Kyoto was seen as an ideal target by the military because it had not been bombed at all, so many of the industries were relocated and some major factories were there." Henry Stimson argued that Kyoto was not a military target, and due to its cultural significance, it should be removed from the list. It wasn't as easy as depicted in "Oppenheimer," as the military continued putting Kyoto on the list of possible targets, forcing Stimson to go directly to President Harry Truman.
Stimson was successful in this endeavor, although it appears he was entirely interested in preserving Japanese culture. It's reported Stimson visited Kyoto periodically in the 1920s when he served as governor of the Philippines. Some historians go so far as to say it was his honeymoon locale, but that hasn't 100% been proven. Despite all this, Stimson was no friend of the Japanese people. He supported the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans, saying, "Their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust even the citizen Japanese." It's perhaps, for this reason, another man is often credited with sparing Kyoto.
