The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.
— Major General Curtis LeMay, XXI Bomber Command, September 1945
I’ve actually read his autobiography, and as I recall his opinion on whether the war could have been ended without those two bombs, perhaps via blockade, was that it “might” have been possible.
With emphasis on the “might”.
The air raids that his B-29 command did on Japan actually caused more destruction than the 2 atomic bombs. The incendiary bombs dropped caused more widespread damage and death.
Read Richard Frank’s book “Downfall” on the final months of the Pacific War, very well researched and he gets into a great deal of detail on the the dropping of the Bombs.
AP news wire, September 20, 1945. You can get access to historic newspapers from EBSCO through your library.
Here’s an editorial from a couple weeks later:
AS TO WHETHER military necessity compelled the
use of the atomic bomb against Japan, perhaps the
testimony of Major General Curtis E. Le May is
worth considering. General Le May commanded the B-29
strikes against Japan. He reached Washington on September 1و after a one-stop flight from Japan, and in company
with Lieutenant General Giles and Brigadier General O’Donnell, gave a press interview. According to the Associated Fress, General Le May said that “the atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all. The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians coming in and without the atomic bomb.”
The other generals who shared in the interview took no exception to that judgment. To be sure,the traditional rivalry between branches of the service may
have had something to do with the positiveness of General
May’s assertion. Nevertheless, such words are not to be
lightly dismissed. Major generals do not speak under such
circumstances without taking careful account of what they
are saying. The country is entitled to believe that there
is at least one general who was in a high post of command
at the actual scene of the fighting who does not contend
that there was any need to have dropped the atomic bombs
on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
The Christian Century, October 3, 1945