It is always difficult to puncture foundational myths. Scheer asks a question about moral equivalency and adduces some evidence to point to the fact that the bomb need not have been dropped on a largely civilian population; he does not much get into the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki, but he shows that the targets were chosen for shock value and ease, that the intelligence was clear that Japan was on the verge of collapse, and that the scientific community and military commanders including Eisenhower counseled against targeting these largely unimportant cities. Tokyo wa not targeted because it was too high profile a city, I imagine, and droppng the bomb let the Soviets know that the US was serious about the next war. What is interesting is the inability of people to give up the myth that necessity drove this double-barreled act and THINK about Scheer's proposition. In the interim, the threat of nuclear force by our side has become routine, and normalized by our own population, who reserve the concept of terrorism for "retail" mass murder.