[kev6168]

I have often thought about this (why didn't they drop the bombs at a few villages not very far from Tokyo to make the point?). Today I found in this thread and the 2016 discusssion two good(I think) reasons, one was to race against Stalin's possible invasion of Japan, another was to clearly showcase the power of the US to the _world_, not merely to the Japanese, in preparation for the ensuring cold war.

[chha]

This was also considered before the bombs were dropped, and has been documented. Wikipedia has some information on it [1], with the short version being that it wasn't possible to stage a credible demonstration without making an actual attack.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a...