[RayChuang88]

It was either drop the Bomb or prepare for an actual invasion of Japan that could have cost over one million American lives and at least ten times that among the Japanese. And that invasion would have resulted in the Japanese forever resenting us.

[PeterPrinciple]

On August 5, 1945, a B-29 was maneuvered over a bomb loading pit and then taxied to Runway Able at North Field. At 2:45am on August 6, the B-29 - piloted by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets of the US Army Air Force, who had named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay - took off. On August 6 at 8:15 am Hiroshima time, the Little Boy bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. A minute later, the bomb exploded.

The great destruction of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not immediately spur Japan to surrender. On August 14 it was decided that an additional attack was necessary. Hundreds of B-29s from Guam, Saipan, and Tinian - loaded with powerful Torpex bombs - converged on the Japanese city of Koromo to deliver the last attack of the war. The Japanese surrendered unconditionally the next day.
http://www.atomicheritage.org/location/tinian-island

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The Japanese were a stubborn enemy. In and of itself, the atomic bomb was not the only factor, but it was a MAJOR factor. Simple version is we dropped the bomb and the war ended, there was much more to it than that.

[mkjessup]

It was either drop the Bomb or prepare for an actual invasion of Japan that could have cost over one million American lives and at least ten times that among the Japanese. And that invasion would have resulted in the Japanese forever resenting us.

Absolutely correct. The militarist mindset which had taken over Japanese society had to be broken, and the atomic bombs were the only way that could be accomplished.

A long protracted invasion, occupation and pacification of the local population might have seen guerrilla hostilities continuing into the 1950's, perhaps even past 1960, considering their ingrained 'conquer or die' philosophy.