[vigabrand]

Even after the second bomb was dropped, the Japanese military was still going to die to the Last man. It took intervention by the Emperor, kind of behind their backs to end the war. I recall hearing that some military hardliners tried a coup but it failed and the Emperor announced surrender, thus trumping the military. Less than a quarter of a million japanese died in those attacks, a lot less than would have died had we had to storm the beaches, and I'm not including american lives. Efforts were taken to minimize the enemy casualties, we could have dropped the bombs on Tokyo itself. It still almost didn't work. I don't recall any other countries condemning this at the time. Only decades later do the historical revisionists apply their wacked philosophies to the record. I think the decendents (and some actual living soldiers) of the soldiers who would have had to attack Japan would be offended by this nonsense. Just my two cents.

Vig