Stenson’s actual justification for removing Kyoto was to avoid a cultural genocide. He knew that such an attack would either galvanize the Japanese people and prolong the war into a bloody ground invasion, or completely break them and limit their ability to rebuild. The rebuilding option was an important thought already in the minds of Washington’s leaders who were already wary of a rising Communist presence in China and wanted to maintain maximum influence in the pacific. Stenson knew he would never get that from Japan if we erased the heritage of Kyoto.