Actually, yes. That's exactly right.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/10/29/t...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/10/29/t...
The Empire had a population of >100 quadrilion, Alderaan killed about 2 billion people. That's a difference of 8 orders of magnitude (50 million), that's equivalent to killing ~140 earth humans. In relative scale, it doesn't come close to Hiroshima, it's closer to having bombed a large wedding.
Rather than comparing it to bombing a wedding, I think it's more accurate to compare it to destroying every trace of some micro-nation and then cleansing any plant and animal life native to that nation.
Between core worlds, protectorates, governorships and colonies, the empire is estimated to cover close to 70 million inhabited worlds, and billions of uninhabitable planets.
> Rather than comparing it to bombing a wedding, I think it's more accurate to compare it to destroying every trace of some micro-nation
More like a small town taken over by entrenched terrorists.
> then cleansing any plant and animal life native to that nation.
A firebombing would do that, and that's an unfortunate side-effect more than the purpose of the act.