General LeMay sought to pursue the enemy and prosecute the war as best he could. LeMay was very much aware of the sacrifices made for all missions, and he would not make the atomic bomb missions to be more than an efficient use of available weapons.
Many of the commanders of Allied Forces had their own, individual opinions about, the willingness of Japan to surrender, plus the ability of Japan to surrender, the value of entreaties, the reliability of a variety of representatives, the reliability of communications channels, and their own impressions of the accumulated information available to the President.
Again, the order to use the atomic bombs, eventually resulted from the concern about limiting casualties.
That took priority over various commanders and other officials guestimates about, when the Japanese would surrender - something that nobody knew.
We are all fortunate that the atomic bombs were used at the end . . . instead of a beginning.
Good point about surrender. Since the United States in its entire history had never demanded that any enemy (not even King George III) “surrender unconditionally” they could not know what an enemy would do when backed into such a corner. But then maybe making that demand created the situation that (in your opinion) could only be resolved by the incineration of hundreds of thousands of non-combatant women and children (along with wiping out the center of Christianity in Japan)? I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2021/8/8/lubyxf9jdoqr8ms29oo755ia1wu2mw