Atomic bombings of Japan Necessary?

So what where arguing is the ends justify the means.

That reminds me of this show I watch one time I was called the Last Mission. "The Last Mission (2002) This History Channel video focuses to two August, 1945 events: the last U. S. bombing mission in northern Japan and an attempted coup d’etat organized by officers associated with the Imperial Guard. After the Nagasaki bombing, a desperate effort was made to confiscate the surrender recording made by Emperor Hirohito. The effort collapsed, when the recording was safely hidden and senior army officers refused to join the attempted military takeover. I find this interesting counterpoint to those who claim that, after Hiroshima, the surrender by Japan was a certainty."
http://shop.history.com/the-last-mission-dvd/detail.php?p=68280

I would say around 20 million because it was so heavily populated

Japanese people still need food, still need materiel.
They had almost none of this, would you really need to invade anything if there was nothing to fight?
They posed no threat to the world war at that point, considering it was over.
And since it was over, why not leave it to the people to take the Emperor down? He himself cannot contain his people without any resources.

For Christ's sake, some body please lock this thread.
We havn't gone anywhere since page 1.

State your sources

I believe you will find them amongst many other links here.

They had nothing left, for God's sake, they had themselves left, their Empire was a bunch of dust. They were levying everything they could for factory workers and military. At this point we can assure, that if they had continued, there would be catastrophic consequences, and thus, without any authority, would be left for the people of Japan to accept foreign aid, and overthrow the Emperor.

They still would have fought. (See Vassilli's post)

Before I get dragged into this what one of my post are you talking about?

The History Channel DVD.

While I'm willing to concede D3adtrap's point for now, as I simply don't care enough about its implications to bother arguing about its validity, Battalion's is just dumb.

War exists. Your 20's optimism can't change that fact. It's best that we take measures to ensure that war is swift, just, and humane, but we cannot make it vanish, and indeed we shouldn't. There exist some things worth fighting for, and worth dying for. If prolonging your life means letting gross injustice continue, then what's your life worth anyways? Life is not infinitely precious, it's only valuable because of what we do with it.

If the Emperor even dared to try and surrender, the military would attempt to stage a coup. (Which they did and failed but thats besides the point). Look at the soldiers who were found in the late 60's. They had survived over 20 years living off of virtually nothing.

And what had they accomplished? Nothing.

They were not informed, not connected to the rest of their people, so how should they know? how should they be affected the same as every other civilian living in a city. This does not affect every individual only based on what that individual has at that point. People have to converse with other people, their lives have to go on. If they can't go on under the Imperial government, they, as an entire people, may overthrow.

I do not know much about the military coup that went on, but I am sure, that it failed due to the fact that the officers were compromised, and outnumbered. The Emperor, before the bombings, was at a stage where he could not stop a revolution.

The people didnt think like that. Their heads were so filled with propaganda that they still believed they were invincible up until the dropping of the bombs. The Japanese leaders rarely let them know of their humiliating defeats.

Same thing with Poles in Warsaw, they knew jack shit about defeats in Stalingrad, and later, the rest of the war up until Soviets started storming Polish cities. And after that happened, the Poles then realized that the Nazi's were losing, instead of what they've been told. When a Japanese civilian can see a Yank ship, that person knows the IJN is screwed.

The Poles were not "brainwashed" which is virtually what happened to the majority of the Japanese population. You forget that the Japanese government had been feeding them this propaganda for over 20 years.

http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/jap/inv/w2ij-ket.html

Again, I would like to point out this:
They can break down, and turn against their Imperial leaders.

More circles.

Well yes they could break down and turn against there leaders, however your forgetting how much sway the political elite and military had over the countries population. Hell the Emperor was almost thought to be a god, which if you precieve your ruler to be a god you will do anything to them. Next when the Emperor told his populous the vast majority expected he was calling abon them to fight to the death, not to surrender (Also it was the first time most Japanese people heard his great voice)

Have you considered options the American's had for propaganda? What ever happened to air dropping leaflets and food? If they see these things coming from American planes, would they not want to reconsider who their leaders are? Democracy, or Imperialism?

Also, if we are talking about alternative ways to end this war, it does not require it to be in the timeline of the original war, it can drag on far past the date it actually ended, so, an internal revolution can happen, if their people are sieged in a war of loyalty.

They had seen Planes coming and bombing them since the start of the war, they had grown used to it and as such didn't care. It was about defending the honor of the emperor and the homeland. Americans have always droped propaganda leaflets, the majority of the time the population never recievs them or they just don't care. Its only a couple individuals who would be like "Well then lets not fight" and of course the natural thing to do is to put them to death (and there family will consider this an honor)