It's said that humanity has never invented a weapon and not used it. The full horror of nukes was not as appreciated than as much as now, and it did appear that the Japanese were tough nuts to crack. Given their conduct, unconditional surrender did seem to be the proper goal to hold out for.

I suspect if they hadn't dropped the bombs, I'd not be here banging on a keyboard as my father was stationed in the Philippines in '44,'45. Invading the main islands would have been a serious donnybrook.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K