Not to derail the thread, but let's rephrase the question a little bit:

1) Did the US need to drop 2 bombs on 2 populated cities several days apart?
2) Did the US need to drop the 2nd bomb?
3) Would dropping the bomb a few miles out to sea have accomplished the same objective?

I guess these are all just variants of the same original question.
The US had a new and awesome weapon.
They needed to demonstrate how powerful it was.
There was limited quantity of the weapons.

So, what if in an alternate scenario, they dropped one 5 miles away from Tokyo, minimal casualties, but even though they see the power of the weapon, they wouldn't be affected directly by casualties, so they may just shrug it off... now the US has only 1 more weapon left. Now what?

I think dropping 2 bombs on 2 populated cities in a short period made the point. Yes. We're crazy. We will continue to be crazy unless you surrender. Reminds me of a bad joke... what do you tell a significant other with 2 black eyes? Nothing, you already told them twice.

TLDR: We only have a few bombs, we needed to do the most with them to end it quickly. There were likely calculations of number of people killed to percent chance of success, and this is the higest outcome of success.

my point has also been clearly expressed by everyone here. the bombs had to happen. notice how both liberals and conservatives alike agree on this XD I think its because most of us are experts in our certain fields of history and we all know that the greatest lesion history teaches us is never be afraid to take the unbeaten path

Edited 1/14/2016 02:20:10

Liberals and Conservatives are like Democrats and Republicans, both are in the same 10 people's pockets. Remember that.

Bottom line, US had all rights to drop those bombs, and it made Japan into our bitch for a few decades, and now into our friend. Our tentacle porn, robot fighting, overly populated...friend.

I personally believe Nagasaki was completely unnecessary, as Japan had proposed a surrender condition in which they keep their emperor, and we ended up doing that anyway. I also would argue that Hiroshima was not very necessary, as the emperor before it was regaining control of the gov't from the war hawks who didn't want to surrender, if the US had waited a few more days, we may have gotten the same surrender condition offered by Japan following the Hiroshima bomb.

Obviously I'm slightly biased, I lost my grandfather due to radiation from the bombs at nagasaki, as he went there as an aid personnel, he avoided being enlisted due to the fact that he had the skills of being an accountant, and as such oversaw supplies.

Also, @AE, you do realize the experiments are literally the basis of most of our knowledge of the brain and other internal organs right?, not trying to justify the acts btw, I acknowledge they were bad, but I don't think the picture is nearly as black and white as you painted it.

Edited 1/16/2016 06:20:58

True Japan, many people don't know about this facts :). But America didt know at the time. Plus, the emperor never would have gotten control of the government. The Warhawks under Tojo's men would have used fighting against the emperor taking complete power because they knew he would surrender to the allies. From Truman's point of view at the Time, Japan was Silent and was just Waiting for the storm of American troops. he only dropped the second bomb because the Japanese didn't seem to coming completely to the table and he didn't want anymore Americans to die. The funny thing is that people say America was so awful for dropping those bombs but the truth is, we were by far the kindest super power of that war. Germany, Russia, England or France never would have wasted all that money and man power to help Japan get back on her feet, but America did when the entire world would have seen it just if we had just let them die.

Or in the opinion of a very wise philosopher " The bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima are only justified compared to the alternative measures that would have been needed to end the war "

Actually the allies did help Germany get back on her feet after the war for the same reason they did it to Japan. It was to contain communism. West Germany was heavily invested on by the allies and East Germany suffered with the Soviet Union because they took all their industrialization machines.

Also let's no forget the creation of Israel and the aid it has been receiving, even now.