Again, its the simple practical of war. You should read up on the matter, after Okinawa the US was incredibly weary regarding the prospect of invading the mainland, assuming that they would face an unprecedented degree of civilian resistance. Casualties were expected to be in the Western Front range; about 720000 casualties (dead and wounded) was the most positive estimate, however, with such a massive degree of civilian resistance, it could end up as high as 4 million with 800k dead soldiers. Civilian deaths would be estimated to top 5 million, as the only effective way to really quash such widespread civilian resistance is by basically just flattening every city you come across. To mitigate such damage there was open discussion of just wiping their asses with war laws and employing acid gas bombardments to clean out cities.
On top of that, it was already known to US intelligence that Japan had directives to execute all US POW's should the mainland be invaded, which were to be about 100000 at that point.
At the end of the day, the simple practical of war applies, and the only just war can be a swift war, for all war is an abomination, the prolonging of which is a crime against mankind. 100000 people were burned on the nuclear pyre to shock the nation into compliance. Its crude, it isn't a moral decision at all, but the human cost of throwing the bombs was but a fraction of that of an invasion, and most importantly, the cost would be wholly on the shoulders of the Japanese.
Again, its the simple practical of war. You should read up on the matter, after Okinawa the US was incredibly weary regarding the prospect of invading the mainland, assuming that they would face an unprecedented degree of civilian resistance. Casualties were expected to be in the Western Front range; about 720000 casualties (dead and wounded) was the most positive estimate, however, with such a massive degree of civilian resistance, it could end up as high as 4 million with 800k dead soldiers. Civilian deaths would be estimated to top 5 million, as the only effective way to really quash such widespread civilian resistance is by basically just flattening every city you come across. To mitigate such damage there was open discussion of just wiping their asses with war laws and employing acid gas bombardments to clean out cities.
On top of that, it was already known to US intelligence that Japan had directives to execute all US POW's should the mainland be invaded, which were to be about 100000 at that point.
At the end of the day, the simple practical of war applies, and the only just war can be a swift war, for all war is an abomination, the prolonging of which is a crime against mankind. 100000 people were burned on the nuclear pyre to shock the nation into compliance. Its crude, it isn't a moral decision at all, but the human cost of throwing the bombs was but a fraction of that of an invasion, and most importantly, the cost would be wholly on the shoulders of the Japanese.