Dear OtherTink,
Those are high-quality, informative links...I learned a great deal. That saying that history is written by the victors, well there is that one book mentioned in THE GUARDIAN article, I think it was DER BRAND, written by the German historian Friedrich, about the excessive bombing of civilian towns by the Allies. I did not realize that, except for a friend in Germany, my age, who was a baby in the bombing of Berlin and Dresden.
The BBC summary is very concise, I did not know those differences between Yalta and Potsdam.
I remember in the book Rooster suggested, the US General Curtis LeMay was actually apprehensive that if Japan won the war, he would be prosecuted for war crimes, for the massive fire-bombing of Japan which he directed. So I looked him up also. I learned that Truman and the military commanders did not even consider the atomic bombing as a moral consideration.
Right or wrong, I do now have even more respect for Truman, just for the decisions he faced and dealt with.