Should the States have dropped the atomic bombs?

[devonin]

Originally Posted by Go_Oilers_Go

Germany was done for, but Japan still had a little bit of fight left in them despite the fact that the war in the Pacific was changing in favor of the Western democracies.

Um...I really think you underestimate how difficult it would have been to defeat Japan via conventional warfare. They would have to have taken control basically of the entire nation top to bottom before the fighting would stop.

The US has a long history of fighting wars that have a few set piece battles, then a surrender and negotiated terms. Japan was going to go right to the end, and a war of attrition was not something the US wanted to get involved in.