This Day in History: August 6th 1945

justblue said:
Pray this never happens again.

The atomic bomb, a world-changing invention, inflicted suffering and launched the nuclear age
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The bomb we dropped on Hiroshima wouldn't have been NECESSARY, had the Japanese chose not to launch their SNEAK attack, while their diplomats were ALLEGEDLY meeting with our diplomats to establish peace across Asia and Europe. Your actions shallow, untruthful actions often cause you much regret. Honesty is and will remain the best policy, alongside sincerity and veracity!
 
army judge said:
The bomb we dropped on Hiroshima wouldn't have been NECESSARY, had the Japanese chose not to launch their SNEAK attack, while their diplomats were ALLEGEDLY meeting with our diplomats to establish peace across Asia and Europe. Your actions shallow, untruthful actions often cause you much regret. Honesty is and will remain the best policy, alongside sincerity and veracity!
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Yes Judge, I understand that Japan started this war and brought the horrifying end upon themselves. I know that my Dad was stationed in the pacific and it is likely I wouldn't be here talking to you if it weren't for the bombs.

That said, I will still pray that this never happens again. War is horrifying. Nuclear war is something many of us won't survive and those that do, may wish they hadn't.
 
Yes, @justblue I regularly pray, always remembering the costs of WWII. My father was an Army Artillery Officer. He spent 1942,1943, 1944, and most of 1945 in the European Theater, fighting Nazi Germans and Facist Italians. Unlike my generation, he could only correspond with mother via the mail system. They remain among the greats of this nation, in my view.
 
Japan's Bushido tradition required that they continue fighting until there was no one left to fight. The bombs convinced them that their civilization could be wiped out in days.

The bombs avoided more years of war and saved millions of lives on both sides that would have been lost had the war continued.

Yes, they are terrible weapons. Certainly more sophisticated than they were back then. Next time they get used that's it for this planet.
 
adjusterjack said:
Japan's Bushido tradition required that they continue fighting until there was no one left to fight. The bombs convinced them that their civilization could be wiped out in days.

The bombs avoided more years of war and saved millions of lives on both sides that would have been lost had the war continued.

Yes, they are terrible weapons. Certainly more sophisticated than they were back then. Next time they get used that's it for this planet.
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It wasn't just the atomic bombs that caused Japan to surrender, though that is the popular perception in the U.S. It was also the declaration of war by the Soviet Union against Japan. That declaration occurred on August 8, 1945, exactly three months after the formal surrender of Nazi Germany. This honored the pledge Stalin made to Roosevelt at the Yalta conference earlier in the year. The Soviet Foriegn Minister Molotov informed the Japanese ambassador of the declaration of war and that war action would commence the following day.

At midnight (thus on August 9) the Soviet Union began its invasion of Manchuria. The invasion was a surprise; the Japanese high command didn't expect the Soviet Union to take action until the end of the month and also expected the invasion to occur at different locations. Japanese soldiers and fit Japanese men were captured and sent straight to Siberian prisons (the infamous Soviet gulags) where most of them died. Those that escaped and fled to Bejing (then under Japanese control) told stories of the Russian mistreatment of the Japanese people that came under Soviet control. Those stories, when relayed to Japan, caused panic among the Japanese population.

August 9 was also the day the U.S. dropped its second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

It was that 1-2 punch on August 9 that finally convinced the Japanese government to surrender. The Japanese government announced its intent to surrender on August 15, which was also the date of the Japanese Emperor's radio announcement of the surrender. That was the first time most Japanese had ever heard the voice of their Emperor, and it was that announcement that finally lead Japanese forces beginning to end their fighting.

The Japanese government realized that if the Soviet Union were to invade the Japanese home islands that part of Japan would end up in Soviet hands, a prospect that was unacceptable to Japan. All through the early 20th Century Japan and Russia/Soviet Union had a series of conflicts. Japan's government knew very well that any part of Japan taken by the Soviet Union would not be treated well; certainly much worse than how the U.S. would govern Japan.

The timing of the surrender is significant. Japan had been able to see just how swiftly the Russians were invading and how the Russians were going to treat those whom it captured. The Japanese government was uncertain how many atomic bombs the U.S. had, but thought it may not have had many. What was undeniable, though, was the large Soviet invasion. The timing of the surrender was fortunate for the Japanese population because the U.S. was preparing a third atomic bomb (the last that it has the material to build) that would have been dropped in late August or early September.

The twin horrors of the atomic bombs and Russian invasion were too much for the Japanese government. It's stand that Japan fight to the last man crumbled against the reality of what Japan was facing.
 
Note, too, that on August 10, the U.S. government proposed to the Soviet Union that the two nations divide Korea among them at the 38th parallel, a proposal that the Soviet Union accepted (much to the surprise of some in the U.S. government). That announcement foreshadowed to the Japanese what might become of their country if the war continued.
 

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