Hey Pete. You didn't strike me as a blood thirsty savage when I met you up in Michigan.

I don't really have an opinion on this issue at this time, but every now and then someone says something that makes me a bit confused, like the bit about the planned Soviet invasion of Japan (and now that it's been explained to me, I understand it a bit better). This part of your post has left me puzzled:

Then consider that Japan had begun sending out peace proposals early in 1942. They got more insistant following Midway. They got more frantic with each defeat.

If they were so insistant with their peace proposals, why didn't we accept them instead of using the nukes?