Here's a map showing the planned landing in March 1946 to take Tokyo. (Taken from the fascinating and comprehensive book CODE-NAME DOWNFALL by Thomas B Allen and Norman Polmar.) This attack would be months after Allied forces invaded the southernmost Japanese island Kyushu. All expectations were that this would involve ferocious fighting for every foot of land, as Japanese civilians were readied to attacks with whatever weapons were available. "Death before surrender" was not an empty slogan to these people; spend some time talking with veterans about what went on in the Pacific during the war.The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave the Emperor an honorable excuse to end the war without seeing his country levelled and hundreds of thousands of his people killed resisting the inevitable occupation. At this time, it wasn't generally known that there had only been two bombs and it would take for more to be produced... as far as the world knew, America could start dropping A-bombs left and right. Even after the destruction caused by a single device was demonstrated, some military leaders in the Japanese command refused to accept the thought of surrender and started a coup to take over. The idea that Japan was on the edge of giving in and was about to wave a white flag isn't born out by the evidence.There has been some debate on this ever since the war ended. I'm including links to extensive arguing back and forth that took place over at the Straight Dope message boards where various viewpoints are presented.
But my sympathies have to be with the many thousands of American servicemen who had survived years of fighting and who fully expected to be killed in the first waves invading Japan itself. These men got a reprieve of their death sentences and got to go home, to marry and start families and buy homes. Among them was my father.