Was the use of the atomic bomb against Japan justified?

[metalbot]

85. Exactly

Firebombing all the way.

(sarcasm tag in case not clear)

There's nothing magical about a nuclear explosion - it's just really big. We could have destroyed Japan from the air. By the time that we dropped atomic weapons, their navy had been destroyed, and we would have been able to launch air attacks from Okinawa. We could easily have done equivalent damage with conventional weapons.

What is interesting about the use of atomic weapons is that because they were new, they gave the Japanese an "honorable surrender" route. They could argue that "this new weapon is such a game changer, that we have to surrender, because we don't have any". I think it would have been far more difficult for Japanese leadership to surrender in the face of increasing conventional bombing.