I think there are a lot of people out there that would disagree with the "last option" part of that statement - including the fair majority of the scientists actually involved in the development of the atomic bomb.

Difficult one. Yet a third view is that the US used a nuclear weapon once when it was the last option, and then again a few days later rather gratuitously. But I'm not sure which I agree with: it's fairly clear that the two bombs killed fewer Japanese people, let alone fewer people altogether, than would have died in a land invasion of Japan -- but, without knowing what the Emperor himself thought, it's impossible to know whether one bomb would have caused the surrender just as effectively. Another rumour is that the generals wanted to fight on even after the second bomb, and that the Emperor rather surprised them by surrendering. At this distance in time it's impossible to know for sure.

Peter