People often justify the fire bombings and atomic bombings on Japan by saying that the US would have had to invade the mainland, but why would they have needed to? It was an island nation invading places it had no land connection to, with a lack of fuel and a defeated navy

by catboienthusiast

WelfOnTheShelf

While waiting for a new answer, I can point you to a similar question that I asked a few years ago, Why not blockade Japan by sea in WWII?, with a great answer by u/DBHT14

dxing2

Since we’re on the topic, a related question is why was it decided to drop the bombs on the cities themselves? Could they not have dropped the bombs within the proximity of a major city to make a statement instead? Did they think that the threat of killing civilians wouldn’t be enough to get the Japanese to consider surrendering?