We didn’t need to drop the bomb — and even our WW II military icons knew it

[BillZBubb]

4. The whole thing hinges on whether Japan actually was "ready to surrender".

Our stated goal was unconditional surrender and we would accept nothing else. Japan's peace feelers were well short of that requirement. The Japanese high command was ready to fight to the death rather than accept unconditional surrender.

It was absolutely imperative that the Emperor be forced to tell the people that Japan had lost and to lay down their arms. Otherwise the horrors of Iwo Jima and Saipan would be repeated on a massive scale--huge numbers of civilian deaths were inevitable. Then there was also the inevitability of mass starvation in Japan the longer the war dragged on.

I sympathize with those who thought using nuclear weapons was awful. But, they weren't opposed to continued massive conventional bombing of Japan's cities and infrastructure. Those were horrible too.

As inhumane and regrettable as those atomic bombings were, they did at least bring an almost immediate end to the war. That probably saved many more lives than it cost.