[Enkidu22]

There was another way. Most of Japanese officers knew they can't win the war and was ready to capitulate. But as I said before americans wanted to trial the emperor and strip him of his throne and that was just unthinkable for people who believed him to be a god. Not to mention that japanese ruling dynasty is one of the oldest on the world (I'm pretty sure it's the oldest).

Americans realized that Japan will never surrender if they won't drop those demands so they did. But what if they did that before all those bombardments? Maybe Japan would just surrender. With soviet invasion being prepared and most of the cities burned to the ground it's very likely.

As to the defence plans: US already prepared plans for invasion of Iran, does that mean you will do it?