Why is Harry Truman not considered a war criminal after nuking Japan's civilian population? Is it only because USA won the war?

by Lorentari

Hi Historians of reddit

During my energy studies i fell down a rabbit hole of sustainable energy > Nuclear energy > A-bombs > WWII in Japan. (..you know how YouTube and procrastination works)

I was wondering if there are any details that I'm missing that qualifies Harry Truman to NOT be a war criminal? My reasoning is that he did, in a few hours, kill more than 300,000 civilians with the 2 nuclear bombs in Japan.

Is he not considered a war criminal solely because he won?

I am not a historian myself, but it seems that those two cites were chosen, not because of a military target, but specifically BECAUSE of the number of civilians.

Please enlighten me.

very_humble

Previously answered by /u/restricteddata in this thread.

In the future I suggest reading the FAQs/rules of the sub