I used to agree with the historical argument that dropping the bombs was necessary to end the war, avoiding a land invasion that would have cost many many more Japanese and American lives.  But a recent article in the Post offered that the Japanese surrender was more out of Japanese fear of Soviet invasion, than fear of the atomic bomb. Certainly the Americans wanted to end the war before the U.S.S.R. could attack Japan in earnest. So the sad truth may be that the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were really among the first victims of the Cold War.