the a-bomb was the straw that broke the camel's back. they needed the surrender and they got it. war is hell but japan should have surrendered months before the bomb was dropped.

>That's not what top military
>officials believed. Based on
>intercepted messages,the Japan-
>ese were more than willing to
>surrender so long as the emperor
>retain his thrown. A conditional
>surrender was even put forth by
>Truman's advisors such as Joseph
>Grew and Henry Stimson, who argued
>that the surrender terms should be
>modified in order to bring a quick
>end to the war.

war is hell. throw the emperor off a high perch and save 300,000 lives. you dont modify your surrender policy once it has been made because it makes you look weak.
>
>Moreover, an avalanche of archival
>documents released or discovered
>over the past decade -- including
>Truman's 'lost' diary and a series
>of revealing letters to his wife,
>Bess -- as Gar Alperovitz and Kai
>Bird point out in the 10 May 1993
>issue of "The Nation" of New York,
>'leaves no doubt that Truman knew
>the war would end "a year sooner
>now" and without an invasion'.

well it should have ended sooner but again the japs are proud people and i dont blame them either. they owned asia kicking everyone's ass until then.