hundreds of B-29 Superfortresses flew overhead afterwards, and was quite an airshow of strength.
I also remember reading about how they had covered up all gun emplacements in Tokyo Bay with white sheets before the surrender. A few noted military men said that Tokyo Bay looked like one giant checkerboard, and were thankful they never had to invade Japan.
And the USS Missouri’s 16 inch guns were at “port” high position. I think some of the Japanese delegation returned to Tokyo and were looked on with disgrace by citizens. We would have pasted them, at great cost to both sides.
Thanks Northern Yankee. Had the Bomb not made it in time, or just remained unused, the land invasion would have been hideously costly — but of course would have been preceded by conventional firebombing, which had nearly leveled almost four dozen Japanese cities and killed tens or hundreds of thousands. The island would have been cut off from needed supplies, starved out, deurbanized, disarmed (the hard way), and, okay, so now I’m starting to get the blue light going, I’d better stop... ;’)