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There are some good reasons to suggest that nukes did not cause Japan to surrender. There are some good reasons to think that the USSR declaring war on Japan was a more direct cause of their surrender. There are also some important reasons for why Japan and the USA would both later claim that nukes were the reason for Japanese surrender in the years following WWII.
Arguing that the one week Soviet intervention at the very end of the war played a significant role in the defeat of Japan is very unrealistic, but it's one that's been around since 1945.
Feel free to take up the cause.
History will always show that Japan was knocked off every island that the US attacked, their fleet was wiped from the seas by the US navy and its air force was swept from the skies by US airpower. If clinging to the belief that brief Russian action against a large but under-equipped and poorly supplied Japanese army in a backwater location was the deciding factor, then you're welcome to it. But you're simply not persuasive.
Japan was hoping to negotiate and keep some of their territorial gains in the far east.
It also snuffed out the illusion that the Russians would help them broker a peace deal.
Russias actions took their remaining slim hopes away.
The most telling statement I can make is that Japan didn't know how many bombs the US had. Despite that, they not only didn't surrender after the first bombing but took their sweet time after the 2nd one....not knowing if 5 more were on the way that day. I think that helps show the Japanese mindset.
There are some good reasons to suggest that nukes did not cause Japan to surrender. There are some good reasons to think that the USSR declaring war on Japan was a more direct cause of their surrender. There are also some important reasons for why Japan and the USA would both later claim that nukes were the reason for Japanese surrender in the years following WWII.
Would Japan even have communications by August 15 that would reliably demonstrate their Manchurian army was crushed? The USSR declared war on August 9, so even then, it still took a week of thinking.
Does anyone know that if Japan knew the status as of August 15?
Does there have to be just one influence? Is not having two cities blown away, and two world powers on your door step enough?
This entire thread stinks of "monday morning quarterbacking". The fact remains that the US was well into the detail planning for the invasion of Japan, down to the order of battle and invasion sites (and even stamping out half a million purple heart medals in expectations of casualties), and Japan itself was preparing for the defense of the mainland. The Russian declaration of war was agreed by the Allied powers at Yalta, so that was not an unknown by the allies or certainly the Japanese intellegence services. The fact remains, also, that we were in the midst of a terrible war with Japan at the time of the atomic bomings.
So again I must question the agenda of the author. Is he suggesting the bomb was dropped just as an act of vengence or to test a terrible weapon, instead of the goal to end the war? None of that makes sense, given the magnanomous treatment by allied powers after Japan's surrender. If japan surrendered and THEN after they surrender we bombed japan, then that would be an issue of course. But, no issue here.
This entire thread stinks of "monday morning quarterbacking". The fact remains that the US was well into the detail planning for the invasion of Japan, down to the order of battle and invasion sites (and even stamping out half a million purple heart medals in expectations of casualties), and Japan itself was preparing for the defense of the mainland. The Russian declaration of war was agreed by the Allied powers at Yalta, so that was not an unknown by the allies or certainly the Japanese intellegence services. The fact remains, also, that we were in the midst of a terrible war with Japan at the time of the atomic bomings.
So again I must question the agenda of the author. Is he suggesting the bomb was dropped just as an act of vengence or to test a terrible weapon, instead of the goal to end the war?
The goal was not just "to end the war" but to spare the lives of American soldiers - that's number one, and number two - I'd think showing not only to Japan but to the rest of the world the new kind of weapon that the US had from that point on was a secondary goal.
You can bet your bottom dollar America fully intended to finish the job. Containment was not in the gameplan.
The japanese air force had been defeated and was no longer a viable fighting force.
The japanese navy had been defeated and was no longer a viable fighting force.
The japanese army had been defeated and was no longer a viable fighting force.
Japan is an island with no resources with which to conduct and maintain a fighting force of any kind.
Invade? Why?
Blockade and starve them until they surrendered. No invasion necessary.
We nuked 2 cities full of civilians to show off (warn) for russia.
I think by july of 1945 the Japanese government was ready to surrender. When the cabinet first received unofficial word of the surrender terms laid out by the Allied leaders meeting in Potsdam, they considered the terms lenient and were inclined to accept. But they decided to withhold comment until they receive the Allied ultimatums through official channels.
With that in mind, elderly premier Kantaro Suzuki tried to take a careful path when questioned about the Potsdam Declaration. Unfortunately, he used a word that has two meanings. He told a press conference that the cabinet was adopting a position of " mokusatsu".
The word makusatsu can mean "withhold comment for the moment". It can also mean "ignore". The Japanese News Agency mistakenly translated it the second way. Radio Tokyo flashed the mistake to the world. Headlines in the United States blared that Japan was ignoring the declaration, rejecting the surrender terms.
The results were tragic. President Truman decided he had no choice but to go ahead and drop the atomic bomb. More than a hundred thousand people were killed and the cities of Hroshima and Nagasaki destroyed- in part because one old man chose the wrong word. Mokusatsu is made up of two characters maku meaning silence and satsu meaning kill. To kill with silence.
Many interesting points and engagement with this issue.
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