The most common advantage usually cited for dropping the atomic bombs is that the action would spare more lives than it cost. There had been recent battles at Okinawa and Iwo Jima that had already cost the American military forces thousands of lives.
The detonation of atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 resulted in horrific casualties and devastation. The long-term effects of radiation exposure also increased cancer rates in the survivors.
In the long geological history of the Earth, humans first appeared during the Pleistocene Epoch, which dates back 1.6 million years to 10,000 years ago.
