The link "Debate over the bomb" in the section named "Controversy" is broken. As a child, I was taught that these bombings stopped the war in Asia. For decades

The link "Debate over the bomb" in the section named "Controversy" is broken. As a child, I was taught that these bombings stopped the war in Asia. For decades, I thought it the truth. Then I learned that most historians thought it false, and they had facts to assert that bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki had little impact on the war itself. Japan knew the war was lost, but wanted to negotiate with the USA in order to keep their oldest colony, in Korea, and also keep their imperial ruler. They knew that a democracy would get reluctant to send their soldiers to fight on the ground, even more so against fanaticized civils. The Japanese government thought that the deaths in the bombings was a price to pay for these objectives (Korea and emperor), and anyway the incendiary bombings of cities built with wood killed more civilians than the nuclear bombs. What ended the war was that the USSR suddenly broke their no-aggression pact with Japan. On that same day soviet troops invaded Japanese Mongolia. Then Korea. Then the north islands of Japan. At this point, the Japanese government knew that the soviet power did not fear sending their troops in a bloody occupation and that the only alternative was an immediate surrender to the other side, the USA. The story of the bombs that stopped the war was a lie that pleased everybody. The Japanese government could claim it was protecting its population, and setting Japan as a victim was a way to shift the focus far from their war crimes. The USA government could claim it detained the most powerful weapons and that their sole power could end wars.