I’m watching “Untold Stories of the United States” on Netflix. In the documentary they state that the Japanese were beginning to initiate peace talks with the Soviets in hopes that they could cut a better peace deal with the US. The documentary also states that US intelligence was aware that the Japanese were effectively done fighting.

This is kind of blowing my mind. I’ve been told my entire life that an invasion of Japan was inevitable and we will suffer heavy casualties. This is the main point people use when justifying the dropping of the bombs. This paints the US in a different color and I’m interested to see if a historian has any input on the matter.