This is why I like to debate history with the knowledgeable. You make good points here, but there's conflicting data points as well:
To wit; what would a 'conditional' surrender have looked like? Would it have deposed the generals running Japan at the time?
How about that invasion, anyway? If no bomb happened, do you think they would have capitulated and given up their home turf? I doubt it.
Another important point; Japan and not Germany was a close second in the race for the Bomb. Drag the war out for another six months or a year tops and los Angeles could well have been where a nuclear armed suicide sub changed history as we know it.
America and Britain were dead set on an unconditional surrender, the Japanese feared losing their culture and America changing their form of government. They tried to use Russia as a mediator because Russia wouldn't be inclined to give America favorable terms of surrender but they were talking about surrender in March of that year.
I think an interesting point that gets ignored about Americas bombing campaign is that Japan had already endured worse coventional bombing raids than what the atomic bomb inflicted. America had already bombed 68 Japanese cities resulting in their partial or complete destruction. They did not convene for surrender talks until the Soviets declared war and invaded Manchuria. Two days after Hiroshima was bombed and before Nagasaki.
There is actually a quote from Henry Stimson where he expresses his concern that the U.S. Air Force will bomb Japan into dust before they got a chance to drop the atomic bomb.
I feel they would have surrendered without the use of the atomic weapons, the same sentiment was expressed in the United States Strategic Bombing Survey - July 1, 1946.
"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."
I'm sure if Japan had been the ones to develop the atomic bomb and drop it on Los Angeles, there would be no argument from Americans that the bombing was an atrocity.
Even if we ignore the atomic bombs, you still have the fire bombing campaigns carried out against civilians in cities where the majority of building were built with wood. After America had condemned Germany for firebombing and Japan for bombing civilians in China.
, and were still fucking colonizing the shit out of them and taking away their rights and its 2015.
