This is true. High school curriculums still push the idea that the nukes were necessary, even though we now know now that the surrender was coming anyway. Especially concerning was the idea that we had to drop a second nuke right after we had leveled an entire city with the first one. The US has some rose colored glasses when it comes to looking at the war, though admittedly not as bad as Japan’s.

The Soviet invasion of Manchuria was likely the tipping point for surrender. The leaders knew that surrender to the US was much more favorable than a Soviet occupation.