Operation Downfall was one of the options that the US and their allies had planned. It was an invasion of the Japanese homeland. This plan was all set up and was expected to finally break the Japanese. That is until there was evidence that the Japanese was changing their strategies. It is still debated over whether or not Operation Downfall would have succeeded. The Japanese were not known for giving up easily, but with the kind of invasion that was planned they probably would not have had a choice. It may have killed more US citizens, but overall less people would have been killed.
The soviet Union was another option that could have pushed Japan to surrender. The US and the Soviets had an agreement that once Germany surrendered, the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan. The fact that there would be another country on the allies side did not stop the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan the day after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Soviets Joining the invasion increased the chances of the allies even more. The atomic bomb was dropped anyway.
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Some also argue that conventional bombing alone would have been enough. It had already killed tens of thousands of Japanese lives. Eventually Japan would have given up. They were defenseless. The atomic bomb killed many more Japanese citizens than needed. Japan would have given up after much fewer of their people were killed if the US had just stuck to the method of conventional bombs.
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