The REAL story here is that despite the sort of enmity that should have created centuries of endless Muslim-style hatred (they launched a sneak attack on our Navy, we used the world’s most horrible weapon on them), today Japan is a better friend and ally than many from whom we have a right to expect much more.
It says something profound about the power of forgiveness.
Truman had four options:
1. Nuke Japan and end the war. Dropping one nuke was not enough to make Japan surrender. It took dropping a second nuke AND convincing Japan that we would keep dropping them until all of Japan was a radioactive pile of sand (we actually didn’t have any more nukes left at the time) to make Japan surrender.
2. Invade Japan instead of dropping the nukes. Countless tens of thousands of Americans and Japanese would have died in a months long battle to the death. When word got out that Truman had nukes and didn’t use them, he would have been impeached and probably imprisoned for treason if not lynched.
3. Blockade Japan indefinitely. Japan today would look a lot like North Korea and we would have tens of thousands of soldiers permanently stationed in the Philippines.
4. Surrender, declare victory, pay Japan war reparations, and blame Roosevelt.