Of course you can. Look at Dresden (look at Marshall Plan[1]), Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, etc., after World War II. And yes, empirical evidence shows that dropping atomic bombs was not necessary to achieve Japan's surrender[2].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

2. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-08-05/hiroshima-a...