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> If I'm not misremembering history, then their delay in action - due to the difficulty of getting news of the situation out of the area of destruction - led to

> If I'm not misremembering history, then their delay in action - due to the difficulty of getting news of the situation out of the area of destruction - led to the bombing of Nagasaki as well It was a bit more complicated than that [0]. There was intense resistance to the Allies' demands for unconditional surrender. Japanese scientists confirmed on the 7th August (the day after the bombing) that Hiroshima had been atom bombed and Nagasaki was bombed on the 9th. The Japanese didn't actually surrender until the 15th August, following a failed coup d'état in which elements of the Army rebelled against the emerging surrender plans [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Events_of_7–9_August https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan#Attempted_coup_d'état_(August_12–15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan#Attempted_c...

speeder 5y ago
If I remember there was also the fact they didn't bothered with the usual emergency meetings regarding the atomic bombs because the damage was less than other things USA did to Japan (like firebombing of Tokyo), but they started to have meetings to plan the surrender when news came that Soviets were sending soldiers toward Japan. According to an ethnic japanese teacher of mine, the Japanese remembered very well how badly it went for them when they tried to invade Mongolia and lost to URSS, and they were more afraid of post-war occupation by URSS than by USA, thus why the surrender became more accepted.
- axiolite 5y ago
  There's a lot of revisionist history out there. The Emperor singled-out the atomic bombs in his surrender message. Japan was depending on the USSR to mediate a conditional surrender, until they entered the war, which closed that avenue. And the reason the USSR hastily entered the war was because of the atomic bomb, they knew it was about to end. Japan was no doubt very concerned about a second front in the war, but I don't know of any particular fear of the USSR... Japan had soundly defeated a pre-USSR Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. It's quite possible that they would have endured the USSR joining the war effort, if not for the additional "shock" of the atomic bombs, and Truman's bluff that the US would be dropping one every week... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/pacific/#transcript https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/pacific/#t...

speeder 5y ago

If I remember there was also the fact they didn't bothered with the usual emergency meetings regarding the atomic bombs because the damage was less than other things USA did to Japan (like firebombing of Tokyo), but they started to have meetings to plan the surrender when news came that Soviets were sending soldiers toward Japan. According to an ethnic japanese teacher of mine, the Japanese remembered very well how badly it went for them when they tried to invade Mongolia and lost to URSS, and they were more afraid of post-war occupation by URSS than by USA, thus why the surrender became more accepted.

axiolite 5y ago
There's a lot of revisionist history out there. The Emperor singled-out the atomic bombs in his surrender message. Japan was depending on the USSR to mediate a conditional surrender, until they entered the war, which closed that avenue. And the reason the USSR hastily entered the war was because of the atomic bomb, they knew it was about to end. Japan was no doubt very concerned about a second front in the war, but I don't know of any particular fear of the USSR... Japan had soundly defeated a pre-USSR Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. It's quite possible that they would have endured the USSR joining the war effort, if not for the additional "shock" of the atomic bombs, and Truman's bluff that the US would be dropping one every week... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/pacific/#transcript https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/pacific/#t...