The Japanese would fightdesperately to defendthemselves.

An invasion of this scale and magnitudewould result in heavy casualties of half amillion lives.

They wanted to halt the Allied advance bydestroying the entire American fleet, thereforepreventing the Allies from resupplying their groundtroops

Despite Japan's enormous disadvantage,Truman knew they would fight to the last man,forcing the Allies to continue sacrificing theirpeople.

He stated the atomic bomb had tobe used to shorten the agony of thewar.

Due to their failure to respond to the warning, it can be inferredthat either the Japanese weren't afraid of the attack, believedthe United States was blufing, or were preparing for acounterattack.

Even though President Truman stated that the atomic bomb wasdropped on Hiroshima (a military base) to avoid the killing ofcivilians, the 80,000+ deaths that resulted were almost allcivilians.

These victims represented nothreat tot he United States.

It was known the Japanese had instructed theirambassador in Moscow to work on peacenegotiations with the Allies.

Japanese leaders began talking ofsurrender a year before the atomic bombwas dropped.

Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo:"Unconditional surrender is the only obstacleto peace..."

Turned out to be on May 8th, so on August 8th, the Russiansshould've declared war on Japan. However, the atomic bombhad been dropped on Hiroshima, followed by Nagasaki the nextday.