lordjeebus

I'm not going to take a side but some points to consider:

Japan had never been invaded before -- lucky chance kept the Mongols away and many believed that supernatural forces would protect the islands from any invader.

Had the bombs not been dropped Russia would have invaded, with ugly results. (eg. lots of deaths on both sides, a post-war divided Japan, etc.)

For good or for bad, one of the purposes of dropping the bombs was probably to intimidate the Russians.

It is possible that the Japanese would have been willing to negotiate a surrender with conditions, but American insistence on "unconditional surrender" made ending the war without further casualties more difficult. The primary condition desired by Japan, retention of the Emperor, was in the end granted by MacArthur anyway.

In its pre-atomic bombing state, Japan's military was hardly a threat to anyone (although parts of China were still occupied).

America did not make much of an effort to make clear the power of their new arsenal before using it.

I remember reading about plans to put together regular atomic bomb production for late-1945, with 9 or more bombs ready and possibly dropped by the end of the year on both industrial targets and civilian ones.