It is interesting that you brought Dresden into the conversation. The two atom bombs had a greater 'shock and awe' effect than fire bombing. Just a point in history, Tokyo and several other major cities were fire bombed beginning in March of '45. That continued after the first bomb was dropped. More civilians died in fire bombing in Japan than died due to the two a-bombs. It took the a-bombs to bring the emperor to his senses. The Jap military wanted to continue the war.
Luckily they didn’t get to the Emperor and assassinate him before he could make his broadcast urging the end of the war.