The comments in this Quora article on this very subject[0] make a good case that the atomic bombings weren't war crimes. As much as I disagree with the atomic bombings on moral and humanitarian grounds, and have a general knee-jerk bias against American militarism in general, it seems the US didn't violate the rules of war which were understood at the time and that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate military targets. The atomic bombings were acts of warfare, but not war crimes.<p>Of course, it's worth mentioning that the #1 answer in that article is "Because the US won," which is also true. Even if the atomic bombings had been war crimes, who's going to put the world's only (at the time) nuclear superpower on trial for them?<p>[0]<a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-US-face-a-human-rights-trial-for-dropping-the-bombs-at-Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki" rel="nofollow">https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-US-face-a-human-rights-t...</a>