My brother's father-in-law was in a troop ship heading towards Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He was to be part of "Operation Olympic" which would have been a Normandy Beach style invasion of Japan, refer to:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8141/downfall.html

Most historians agree that the Japanese would have fought like they did on Okinawa and Iwo JIma to defend their home islands, i.e. fanatic combat to the death with almost no surrender. Admiral William Leahy estimated that there would have been more than 250,000 Americans killed or wounded during the invasion of Japan's main island of Kyushu alone. America's total combat deaths during WW-II was 292131. One could argue that we were just "warming up" in terms of U.S. combat deaths when the Japanese surrendered. My brother's father-in-law was in no doubt that he survived WW-II because the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Gary