The nuclear bombs were quite deadly to civilians compared to "traditional" firebombing-- Hiroshima alone had 2-3 times more victims than the extensive Tokyo firebombing campaign (200k-300k vs ~100k), despite the Tokyo area being much larger (=> >1M homeless).
But it is reasonable to assume that less starvation from a slightly earlier end of the war compensated for the higher lethality of nuclear bombs.
A potential land invasion (with lots of death Americans) is also often cited to "justify" the nukes, but I'd be careful with that argument because it is unclear that it would've been necessary (in a no-nuke timeline). The US post-war strategic bombing survey said on this: "it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."