Glad to be alive

Instapundit runs a lengthy article about the dropping of the atomic bombs - and the American lives it saved.
Planners of the invasion assumed that it would require a full year, to November 1946, for the Japanese to be sufficiently worn down by land-combat attrition to surrender. By that time, one million American casualties was the expected price.
If you're related to one of those possible casualties, you are thankful for the atomic bomb.