On Truman and the Bomb

The traditional narrative states that Truman didn't have a choice but to drop the bomb and that the only other alternative was a massive land invasion that would have resulted in a gazillion American fatalities. I reject this assertion completely. a) We had the Japanese mainland completely surrounded with an air-tight naval blockade and absolute air superiority (blowing up anything that moved, essentially) and b) the Japanese had been looking for a way to honorably surrender for quite a while with a spate of reasonable conditions and the Americans refused even to talk (it was full, unconditional surrender or nothing).........................................................................................................And even if there was an element of truth to what these court apologists have been claiming, targeting civilians is still a) a war crime and b) a demonstrably inefficient way to win a war. If you're asking for my opinion here, dropping those two horrible weapons was largely for Russian consumption; a) to keep them out of the Asian war theater and b) to frighten the holy bejesus out of them. But, come on, couldn't they have just blown up a deserted island or two - you know, instead irradiating 100,000 folks?...Seriously, if this doesn't constitute a war crime, then we really need to just stop using the term 'cause at this point it's meaningless.