[Johnj]

I based my estimates using the same reports Truman had. I understand that pre-battle estimates on Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were pretty close. Of course during both of those battles about the only prisoners captured were too wounded to fight. If we had invaded Japan it would have been a blood bath. And the only Japanese to survive would have been the Japanese that were not in Japan.

To have set off the bomb outside of a city, where loss of life would not be so great, would have been seen as a sign of weakness on our part, and would have spurred them on. (Short that means to keep on fighting) The war could have dragged on into 1946, even 1947. Japan could have finished their atomic bomb program, and guess where they would have tried to deploy their bomb?