[AmericanInTokyo]

Big picture, young, US military officers who knew that Japan would eventually lose, and so then, why destroy 2000 years of beautiful Japanese history, architecture, documents and artifacts, in essence, hollowing out the inner core and soul of the Japanese people, by bombing Kyoto?--they thought. And (they) argued that other cities should be hit. Yes, the clouds also played a factor, too.

I heard a guy in Kokura once half joke, "they got it instead of us, all due to the weather."

[VOA]

...Japan would eventually lose, and so then, why destroy 2000 years
of beautiful Japanese history, architecture, documents and artifacts,
in essence, hollowing out the inner core and soul of the Japanese
people, by bombing Kyoto?--

At this remove...I was just mentioning the irony of the fairly-well
Christianized USA nuking the Japanese city with the largest number
of Christians.

As for the reasoning of Stimson, he was looking at the long view...
why totally demoralize a potential future ally?

Stimson appears to have been on the right track.

And I'm glad he was the one making decisions VERY
far "above my paygrade".