[Doctor Stochastic]

The Russian destruction of the Japanese army in Manchuria shows that the Japanese army wasn't nearly as good as the US thought (or maybe the Russians were really that good or both.)

I think that the us would have lost 100,000 dead and about 1,000,000 wounded in an allout attack on Japan. Japanese losses would probably have been at least 20 times higher. WWII was probably the last war of attrition in which the destruction of the enemy industry could contribute to the war effort. So I think the bombing was correct. War isn't nice.

On the other hand, I'm looking back after 60 years; a better case (for or against using the bomb) could be had by looking at what Truman had to work with.

[AndrewC]

I agree with your analysis. To be sure, it was Russia that drove the German Wehrmacht the ~1378 miles from Stalingrad to Berlin.