It was needed. The country was not going to surrender unconditionally, and as much as it sounds absolutist, it was the only way. The belief in state shintoism was strong in the country, the emperor was a divine descendant. He was held in a mythic view until his surrender where he "denied" his divinity. (A story for another time, it was the way that he said it that causes some doubt of whether he actually completely denied it). In fact, his mythic proportions were shown when he surrendered over the radio, as a good portion of the japanese civilians couldn't understand some words due to them being used only in the court. While you can argue that original Bushido wasn't that strong, the state version of the 40's definitely was. When you mix religion with war, you get the result of large amounts of populations fighting to the death. A land invasion would have had the full country fighting in the emperor's name. In fact, if it wasn't for a certain official who had a honeymoon in Kyoto, the war would have lasted longer since the emperor would have been wiped out and turned into a martyr. Also, the army tried to delay the message of surrender from the emperor AFTER the TWO bombs were dropped. The nation wasn't going to stop fighting. A simple blockade wouldn't have worked since they could have holed up for months or even years, an invasion would have been deadly and would have messed up the countries future with the Cold War. It would have probably been worse than a East/West Germany.
Another thing for those who believe that Japan fought honorably, it didn't. Rape of Nanking, torturing Soldiers, the crimes against humanity committed against the chinese and koreans, and it even had a nuclear program too. (Ever since it was discovered that a nuclear bomb could be made, everyone was trying to make one. The US just got there first. It should be noted though that Japan's was in it's infancy and was stopped after the war).
To summarize, an unconditional surrender was the only way for the war to end permanently without repercussions affecting the US. With the demilitarization of Japan and the occupation of Japan by the United States, Japan was prevented from becoming like the Germany between WWI and WWII. The a huge percentage of people would have fought once the war hit the homeland. The Japanese mainland would require more than just a simple navy bombardment and blockade. They were warned and nuked industrial centers. (Nagasaki was the one with the weather causing the plane to fly further away.) The bomb was already tested with the Trinity testing and actually isn't as big and deadly as made to believe. It would take more than thousands of nukes to kill off mankind, in fact there have been a few THOUSAND bombs set off from 1945 to 1998. While civilian losses would be have been high for the city, it can not be compared to that of an invasion of the entire country. Besides, the non atomic bombing of Tokyo killed about the same amount if not more due to both sides minimizing the death toll. In keeping with US interests, it would have been unwise, no idiotic, no to have used it. Besides, it was this decision that prevented a split japan between the Soviets, the US, and the Chinese. (The chinese were succeeding in their war effort at this time.).
Basically, we gave them a chance of surrendering unconditionally and they chose not to accept. Unconditional surrender was the only acceptable way to prevent repercussions that would come back to haunt the US.
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