It's interesting how the fact that we nuked two of their cities is the central point that always seems to come up when referring to Japan. Never mind that they murdered the civilian contractors they captured on Guam, the way they treated their captives, that they had their very own nuke program that was getting close to some success, they committed uncounted atrocities in Malaysia with all the Brits they captured (Bridge over the River Kwai is based on fact), and the Rape of Nanking where they tossed babies in the air and caught them on bayonets for an example. The list goes on and on.

They were planning on fighting until there wasn't a single live Japanese citizen left if we had invaded. And they wouldn't have batted an eye if they'd nuked us first. So I find it ironic at best that they are so put out about being nuked. As horrible a pair of events as they were, in the end the suffering that was averted massively outweighs what would have happened otherwise.

In my opinion nuking them doesn't even begin to outweigh the things perpetrated by the Japanese during the war and before it. They were treated so much better after the war than they treated anyone they conquered, it's almost impossible to assign a value to it.