Nice but not that simple. There’s plenty of evidence to support what this author is arguing and there’s plenty of evidence to support alternative outcomes.
This article is reasonably good overview. There’s also an excellent in depth analysis (which I couldn’t find right now) on MacArthur’s view that the Japanese would have accepted peace but for the US refusal to consider a negotiated surrender. Little did he know (but Truman knew it) that the Japanese had contacted the British to discuss surrender.
Well, the Japanese Emperor thought he’d ended the war because of the bomb. But I guess some history professor knows more about it.
Japanese peace feelers were a joke. This professor of history engages in wishful thinking. Maybe he should look over the records that remain of the discussion by the Japanese Cabinet at the time the bombs were dropped. The “peace faction” was in serious jeopardy of being assassinated by the army if they had been exposed.
I used to think that blockade was an alternative. But the digger I deep into the actual conditions of that time the more I’ve come to believe that the bombs, horrible as they were, were necessary.
God help us all. What a planet.