Originally Posted by Dirty Dane

All the talk about the bombings saved lives is just BS, and grandpa propaganda from the 50s & 60s.

The reason the japanese did not surrender was because they were given the terms unconditional surrender. At those times, the emperor was considered a God, and the terms of surrender included that the emperor had to give up his throne. This was impossible and totally unacceptable for the Japanese samurai culture. Truman knew this, but he listened to the public opinion in US instead, they wanted to humiliate Japan as much as possible after all they had done, which somehow was emotional understandable. Japan then negotiated peace with Russia. The Allies had already broken the coded messages between Japan and Russia, and Truman knew that Japan seeked peace, but not unconditional. So instead of going for the diplomatic solution, simply by letting the monarchy stay (which it did afterwards anyway) they dropped the bombs and killed lots of civilians.
Truman and Eisenhower have later admitted they did the wrong thing.

So there were alternativ solutions, and the way they dropped the bombs is also questionable.
Oh yeah, if they went for the diplomatic solution, there would never have been any Russian invasion in Korea and wars later either. Its easy to say that now, but its a fact.