In reply to: Hiroshima and Nagasaki was pure slaughter of civilians. The US dropped the bombs AFTER the Japanese had declared defeat This is not entirely true. Some elements of the Japanese government had made approaches to Russia on August 10th with the aim of surrendering to America. However, they did not contact the Americans directly about this and even though the Americans almost certainly knew about these overtones (they were regularly intercepting communications), there was still strong opposition from certain Japanese factions and the Americans had good reason for believing that the hardliners would win the battle and that Japan wouldn't be surrendering in the near future.The Americans dropped the bombs ostensibly to persuade those non-surrenderist hardliners that surrender was their only option.Japan officially surrendered a few days later on August 15th, after the bombs were dropped.Yes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were terrible...but that's war for you. It's arguable as to whether or not the actions were justified then but we should really all just be hoping that it will never be considered necessary again.