Erich, I am not sure I am following what you are trying to say. Could you expound on your remark? </font>[/quote]bigiceman, I'd like to point out that several academics mistakenly think there was NO reason to drop the atomic bombs. This dissappoints me. Many younger people genuinely wonder why in the world such a horrific thing could happen. The sad truth is, many are simply not students of history. The following exerpt is an interesting & informative article by James Martin Davis from b-29.org:

......Had these bombs not been dropped and had the invasion (of Japan) been launched as scheduled, it is hard not to speculate as to the cost. Thousands of Japanese suicide sailors and airmen would have died in fiery deaths in the defense of their homeland. Thousands of American sailors and airmen defending against these attacks would also have been killed and many more wounded.

On the Japanese home islands, the combat casualties would have been at a minimum in the tens of thousands. Every foot of Japanese soil would have been paid for, twice over, by both Japanese and American lives.

One can only guess at how many civilians would have committed suicide in their homes or in futile mass attacks.

In retrospect, the one million American men who were to be casualties of the invasion, were instead lucky enough to survive the war, safe and unharmed.

Intelligence studies and realistic military estimates made over forty years ago, and not latter day speculation, show quite clearly that the battle for Japan might have well resulted in the biggest bloodbath in the history of modern warfare.

At best, the invasion of Japan would have resulted in a long and bloody siege. At worst, it could have been a battle of extermination between two different civilizations.

Far worse would be what might have happened to Japan as a nation and as a culture. When the invasion came, it would have been after several additional months of the continued firebombings on all of the remaining Japanese cities and population centers. The cost in human life that resulted from the two atomic bombs would be small in comparison to the total number of Japanese lives that would have been lost by this continued aerial devastation.....

So yes, Japanese civilian casualties would have been far worse had the bombs not been dropped. This is a fundamental concept for most WW2 historians, but mysteriously is confused by younger generations.