I always believed that the A-Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had less to do with military reasons and more to do with political reasons. Japam would have been forced to surrender sooner or later anyway simply because of the blockade. However,the USSR was the 800lb gorilla in the corner and I feel the A-Bombs were dropped in an attempt to hasten Japan's surrender before the USSR could become more involved in the war against Japan.
Was dropping the bombs a war crime? I really can't answer that. It seems to fit inside a grey area
What I do consider to be a true war crime was the bombing of Dresden. It was a city with no real military value but with a large number of churches many of which were very old. To me,Dresden was just terrorism on a massive scale since the only target of the bombing were the civilians.
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