The Ghost of RubangB said:
We were just trying to scare the USSR by showing off our new weapons. We weren't ending WW2 with the nukes; we were starting the Cold War.
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While that is a reason, that is not the ONLY reason, nor is it even the biggest one.
So many of you are forgetting that the USSR was in the midst of grabbing entire countries of Eastern Europe and was starting to march hardware east so they could land-grab China, Japan, and various other southeast Asian countries.
Truman could NOT allow that to happen. It sounds morbid but you're arguing that we should have killed MORE people and ultimately still lost parts of at least China (who was in the midst of almost collapsing) to the USSR. Truman needed the war to end RIGHT THERE, no questions asked. The world is a lot better place for it and though it sounds cruel, the Japanese are probably in a better place because of it (unless you believe that fighting with Northern Japan through the 50s-90s sounds like fun).
The "sit and wait out Japan" approach never would have ended the war in time to keep Russia out of the conflict. And the second the Russians got there, they would have landed on the coast and started invading. The Russians have never given a damn about their soldiers and they'd eagerly sacrifice them for more land.