I see it was unneccesry to drop the bomb. I understand we wopuld have lost close to a million and Japan 5 mil. And it would likely have meant that the soviets get more of the Japanese Empire than they should have BUT:
We were taking an etremely hardline stance agianst Japan. They were offering an actual surrender. Not just a ceasefire or something. They wanted to end the war. They just wanted to end it with some of their dignity still left. They would give up nearly all their Empire, reduce the size of their military, sign a non agression treaty, etc, etc, etc. While there were some in the Japanese gov't that opposed this route, it was becoming increasingly more popular and it was supported by Hirohito and some close advisors.
Unfortunetly, the allies wanted nothing to do with anything less than complete victory and humiliating the Japanese. So when the Japanese submitted a formal offer of surrender, the allies didnt respond. Instead they ignored it until the little conference in Berlin(i believe) that decided that the atom bom must be used. Within a couple days the bomb was dropped and soon the war was over.
I believe this how of strength intimidated the Soviets, and it showed that the west was unwilling to negotiate. Thus it was all or nothing and Soviets were not about to lose.
If we had accepted a peace that was just shy of complete victory, we would not have killed the hundreds of thousands of Japanese we did, nuclear weapons may not have even gona any further that they already were, the cold war may not have even happened or at least was not as severe as it was, and the US wouldnt need to worry about all the nuclear proliferation issues that we have now.
So on one hand there is a slightly less satisfactory peace than we wanted and a nice peaceful world to come (or so it sounds that it would be)or a complete victory with a not so peaceful world to come.
