We did more damage to Tokyo than either Hiroshima or Nagasaki using the firebombing technique we developed over Germany. Japan killed more people in Nanking than either bomb. Both sides fought massive battles on land and sea. My father was in the Second Marines. The War Dept. issued everyone wills to fill out and put uppermost in their footlockers. Their commanders told them bluntly they wouldn't be coming back from this one. This after Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa. Of course, we all know now that invasion never happened. But if it had, Japanese losses were projected at the time to be maybe a million. Even Japan knows things could have been better, but almost certainly would have been worse.