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IMO, Hiroshima and Nagasaki most likely prevented WW3 by revealing to the Soviets that any invasion of Western Europe would be a foolhardy exercise, even for armies used to horrific losses. Stalin was seriously contemplating resuming hostilities in Europe and seizing as much of Germany and France as he could. Without atomic weapons, the Allies most likely would have been overrun by a more experienced and brutal Soviet foe.
There's a whole subgenre of science fiction dedicated to an Allied invasion of Japan, most of which ends with eventual US victory but with horrific losses on both sides, but the majority of historians believe that the bomb was dropped as much for Soviet observation as Japanese losses.
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