Beccy:

My understanding is that the decision saved thousands of lives, on the Allied side. What would you tell those families, if you had decided not to make it, under circumstances of flat out, bitter-to-the-end warfare? I do not believe that's an easy question to answer. And I believe Truman tortured himself about it before making it.


The story about the Japanese being ready to throw it in is inaccurate; the power to take that decision was being preempted by the general staff, if I recall my history correctly, and Hirohito was prevented by internal politics from making overtures by those who began and were obsessed with the war.

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