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

[Scruffy1]

35. The brainwashing was successful.

If you bring up this discussion all you get is incredulous looks from those that bought 'saved countless lives" argument.What Admiral Leahy knew was that Japan was completely isolated and had no petroleum for its ships and planes or any other imported necessities. It was just a question of time. This was the work of the US Navy submarine fleet. Militarily they were done.
My grandfather was on the general staff and was a lifelong friend of Ike (they grew up together). He never talked about the war, but one time I asked him if there ever was any plan to invade Japan. The answer was "NO". Even my father bought the common rational of it saved lives because to think otherwise leads down questioning the whole narrative of the myth of America exceptional-ism.
In my mind the only rational that makes any sense was the bombing was done as a demonstration of American brutality to scare the Russians, but I have no evidence of this. Merely having the bomb was not enough. It had to be demonstrated that we were willing to drop it at will.