The Key Shape of the Second World War

The period from May 1940 to 1941 is the key one for the course of the war and its aftermath. If those bombs hadn't been dropped on those two Japanese cities, Japan would nonetheless have been defeated within the imminent future. By that time, Germany already had been defeated. So in terms of looking at the key shaping of the Second World War, it didn't come with the dropping of those nuclear weapons at the end of the war.