They have books about this, David.

What?

Even with the atom bombs, Japans military almost overthrew their emperor to prevent the surrender.

Let that sink in.

Their loyalty to Japan and the empire almost lead to them seizing power from the empire.

They'd have fought to the last man if they didn't think we could vaporize any city with a single bomb, and they didn't think America would be stupid enough to use our only two atom bombs as "warning shots" instead of against serious military targets.

They had to assume that we still had at least a handful, but potentially 100s.

Japan was only going to surrender if complete defeat was inevitable. And the Americans tricked them into thinking that was true without a land invasion. The psychology behind it is almost as impressive as the physics.

War, is generally only supposed to be soldier vs soldiers. The Atom bombs killed so many civilians.

That would be laughable if real life wasn't so dark...

It was fucking WW2, a shit ton of civilians were being killed daily all over the globe.

Civilians not dying in a war is a recent misconception in some countries because the atom bombs are deterring big military powers from invading each other directly.

We do proxy wars now. And lots of civilians still die in war even if you can't see them.

Soviets joining the war would have also meant a massive land invasion and conventional bombing campaigns.

The Red Army was also notorious for crimes against civilian populations.

Why make the same comment a second time after I already answered?

The reality is that all cities considered were absolutely valid military targets. America had also been dropping leaflets with instructions to evacuate the cities and warning the populations of imminent destruction.
Furthermore, it seems people assume the bombs were dropped simultaneously or something and so Japan didn't have a chance to surrender but the reality is there were several days between the two bombings. The first bombing was immediately follow by the president of the US urging the immediate surrender of Japan. They didn't surrender over the course of several days, although the Emperor was considering it against the demands of his advisors to keep fighting. It wasn't until 3 days later they dropped the second bomb and only then was it unilaterally decided by the Emperor to surrender.

While war is a terrible thing, the dropping of the bombs probably saved millions of lives on all sides of the conflict compared to the sacrifices that would have been made under a conventional land invasion. The value of the bombs was precisely in their shock and awe, not their inflicted casualties. The fact that Japan didn't immediately surrender after the first bomb really tells you how costly a longer war could have been, for everyone involved.

The Operations Room on YouTube released a very informative video that covers pretty much a play-by-play of the days leading up to the bombings and the bombings themself. I highly recommend watching it. The atomic bombs were harrowing weapons, but I believe they were every bit necessary to stop a Japanese nation out of control on the warpath.

No, it honestly depends on whether or not it took place before or during WWII. Terrorism was a valid tactic... until weapons like the atom bomb became available and a single act of terrorism could destroy a city, destabilize a country, and even affect the global economy. Its barbaric now only because it hurts the rich too and not "just" everyone else.