To what extent were the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary to end World War II? Includes Bibliography and Footnotes (if you care to message me for them)

To what extent were the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary to end World War II? In the analysis on the decision to drop 'the Bomb' on Japan at the end of World War II, historians will usually either tend to one of two schools of thought. The orthodox school stress that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to end the war. The revisionist school argues that the atomic bomb …

…destruction : Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Weber, M. 'Why the Atomic Bombings Could Have Been Avoided: Was Hiroshima Necessary?' Institute for Historical Review <http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n3p-4_Weber.html> [27 April 2003] United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War) Washington, D.C. <http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm> [27 April 2003] Footnotes:: message me for footnotes