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I have long thought that the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were fully justified for multiple reasons. Your post has a weath of information in it, some of which I was not previously aware.

Did you write this post yourself? Can I have permission to use it, with due credit, of course?

Two arguments concerning this issue which I have not seen given are as follows:

One, at the tine the decision was made to use the A-bombs, no one (excepting the scientists working on the bomb who were fully in the loop) really understood what its use meant. We had just spent the last four years making bigger, better, faster, more powerful weapons. The atomic bomb would have been thought of as simply an extension of this effort. After the world saw the results, attitudes changed, as well they should. You touch on this idea peripherally in your post.

Two, had the invasion of Japan taken place, the projected casualties would have more than doubled all of the American casualties up to that point. Would the American public have signed on to the rebuilding of Japan at that point? I rather doubt it. I think their attitude may have to let them rot.

As a post script, did you know that the US government had 490 thousand Purple Hearts made in preparation for the invasion of Japan? So many were made that none have been made since, with the exception of 9000 that were produced -- you're going to love this -- when the government temporarily lost track of the ones it already had. They were cleaned up and re-ribboned at least once.