As opposed to incinerating them with fire bombs, blasting them into pieces with high explosives, starving them to death through blockades, shooting them with machine guns, bashing in heads with buttstocks, beheading them with swords, stabbing them with spears, raining down arrows on them, driving them off cliffs, drowning them as their ships are sunk underneath them, etc etc etc?Killing innocent people with two nuclear bombs is the work of retarded beings and the most grotesque thing in history.
What Japanese people are innocent (in the context of being considered a legitimate target in WW2)? The government there had the full support of the people even after YEARS of war. Where did the humans come from to feed the war machine if not from the population at large? Who made the planes, bombs, tanks, rifles, ships? The entire nation was fully engaged.
Sure, 80 years removed we can sit back and armchair general this thing all day. But in the moment, after years of total war, millions dead, entire civilizations at risk, dropping 2 relatively low yield nuclear weapons seems a small thing. Go look at the casualty figures of Finland, china, russia, SE asia, poland, france etc etc japan is middle of the pack.