[Fenris6]

The Lefties should be thankful it was Truman. Others wouldn't have offered terms of surrender.

[r9etb]

The real question, though is whether or not Japan would have surrendered without the bombings. It's actually not a clear-cut thing -- apparently the emperor was pushing for surrender by June of '45, but Hirohito and his pals wanted to hold out, and were planning to depose the emperor.

The bombs clearly did break that logjam, and very well may have ended up saving more lives than they took. The question is whether Hirohito's hold on things could have been broken without them before an invasion of Japan proper. It's hard to say, though I think they'd have tried to hold out for several more months.

IMO the bombs were horrible, but the likely alternative was far worse.