There were alternatives, tho. Firebomb, blockade and starve Japan into submission, allow the Red Army and Chinese to annihilate the Japanese army on the Asian mainland.
The atomic bombings just happened to be the least worst alternative.
The CO of the submarine based plane squadron that was en route to suicide bomb the US fleet anchorage at Ulithi when the war ended was once asked what he fought of the last of his planes (Seiran) being displayed next to the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian. He said that the Enola Gay didn’t just save his life, it saved his nation.
Fair enough.
Yeah, our Lefties are so ignorant of history, and so overcome with joy to use the A-bombings to push their narrative of “the USA is EVIL,” that they can’t see and would never admit that the A-bombs saved Japanese lives.
My dad was a marine in the South Pacific. He told us that his unit was getting ready to gear up for the Japanese Island invasion. It would have been very bloody, but they would have gotten it done.
He also told us he belonged to one of the units that got caught up in the Bataan Death March. He missed it because of a paper work/administrative reassignment. He could type, and was held from his unit for a couple of weeks. Then they were captured. Yikes.
He told me all of this when I was a skull full of mush and was exploring the idea of “was the bomb dropped on Japan evil?”He definitely convinced me: NO. IT SAVED BOTH ALLIED AND JAPANESE LIVES.