Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin4hire
I think I would've answered differently to the question "What did you think of the atomic bombs being used?"
I would've answered "Completely unnecessary to end the war as Japan was all but finished. It was just a matter of time untill they surrendered which means a ground invasion was unnecessary (we'll never know for sure but those in support make a good case), however at the time the United States was aware of the coming Soviet threat therefore the A-bombs were a "warning shot" aimed at the Soviets"
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No, not really. I did a 32 page Honors History Thesis on the subject, reviewed tons of sources (both American and Japanese), and I can tell you that a) impressing the Soviets was never the goal, it was at most a secondary or tertiary side effect, b) plans were most definitely underway to invade Kyushu if the bomb had not been developed in time, which would have resulted in millions of casualties, and c) the Japanese were not on the verge of surrender, they felt they could hold out for many more months and were very hopeful the Americans would negotiate a favorable cessation of hostilities rather than invade. Even after the Soviets entered the fight and Hiroshima was bombed, there was 100% unanimous agreement by the Japanese leadership to continue the war. After Nagasaki, it was a 50/50 split, allowing the Emperor to cast the tie-breaking vote to surrender. If just 1 single member had voted the other way, the invasion was set to go ahead, because we didn't have any more atomic bombs (though we'd lied and said we did at the time), and it would take months to build another one.
Frankly, I think it does a disservice to the indomitable will of the Japanese people to say they would have surrendered anyway, without any additional provocation or bombing. They were willing to fight to pretty much the last man (and woman) to protect their homeland and Emperor, and massive defensive efforts had been underway for months to defend the islands. They would not have gone to all that effort of arming civilians, training them, building fortifications, etc if they were planning to surrender soon anyway. That just doesn't make sense.