Actually, you should check on that. The Supreme Council declined to meet after the Hiroshima bombings. Yet, they decided to meet BEFORE the Nagasaki bombings.
Prior to the Russia attack, the Japanese were hoping Russia would help them end the war with the U.S. Once Russia invaded, the knew they had to surrender.
You are also ignoring the conventional bombings all summer that had reduced so many Japanese cities to rubble. Hiroshima and Nagasaki's destruction were a small part of the total.
Keep in mind, I am not saying it was immoral, or the U.S. shouldn't have done it. But the major reason was a shot across the bow of the Soviet Union. Why were those dates picked? The USSR had committed to the Allies to declare war on Japan by that time. (The real crime is that the Allies hadn't obligated the USSR to invade sooner for all we did for them. Many U.S. lives could have been saved.)
“You are also ignoring the conventional bombings all summer that had reduced so many Japanese cities to rubble. Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s destruction were a small part of the total.”
You are right. Conventional bombing killed far more people than the atomic bombs did. The fire bombing of Tokyo probably contributed almost as much to the Japanese decision to surrender as dropping the atomic bomb did.
The Soviet Union never invaded Japan. They declared war on Japan a few days before the certain Japanese surrender in order to seize Manchuria, North Korea and other areas. Gen. Mac Arthur prevented them from occupying any part of Japan. Truman asking Stalin to join the war against Japan at Potsdam was one of the stupidest foreign policy decisions in American history.
The Japanese ethos in WWII did not consider any Japanese citizens “civilians”. Japanese women and children killed themselves rather than surrender. Japan also did not consider any of the people it conquered to be civilians. They regularly raped and massacred civilian women and killed civilian children.
In actuality, the decision in 1945 was between bombing and blockading Japan and invading Japan. Conventionally bombing and blockading Japan over a period of months or years would have caused millions of civilian casualties. Invasion would have caused many, many more. The Japanese military was suicidal. Leaving them in power would have created far more suffering and destruction.
In war people are killed. The U.S. did not start WWII. But America finished it.
The casualties and suffering would have been far greater under any other option.
“The Supreme Council declined to meet after the Hiroshima bombings. Yet, they decided to meet BEFORE the Nagasaki bombings.”
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were 3 days apart. The atomic bomb was new and it took a short time to gather information. To say they did not meet after Hiroshima but met before Nagasaki dishonest. They did meet after Hiroshima.