Originally Posted by htperr6565

What you fail to realize, is that a surrender was not needed, if you are not an egoist in washington.

The whole spat with Japan was about them expanding, not existing. They had not ability to expand on the eve of the drop. Who cares if they surrender? They were stuck on their island surrounded by the biggest navy in the world. a one year blockade could have produced a surrender without vaporizing half a million. why let the military government decide the fate of thousands? i thought america was above stuff like that, not just another calculating country.
no fight was needed. the fight in all practical sense was over. the japanese war machine was crushed.

why was a surrender so important? the war was not all or nothing at the beginning (japan just wanted to slap our navy out of the way while they picked up a resource empire, similar to ours). why did it become so at the end?