Pat is overlooking the toll that refusal to surrender would have produced for the Japanese population itself...by all accounts, each and every Japanese citizen, man, woman, or child, was expected by their military leaders to fight to the death. The death toll may have been half a million to the US, but it would have been far more vast for the Japanese themselves, and far greater than the numbers killed by the bombs. To defeat the monumentally brutal Japanese military machine completely was absolutely crucial, or it could arise again in time and endanger the entire region as it had in the past.
Surprised to see that more were killed in Dresden than with the nuke.
There were many that said that a demonstration of the nukes on non populated areas would have had the same effect.
Lemay was Goldwater's running mate - he was made to be a neanderthal and surprising to see his thoughts on Truman.