>I thought at Tehran and Yalta Russia’s assistance in fighting Japan had been secured?
As was typical with Stalin he was waiting until someone else did all the heavy lifting just as he did in Poland when he was allied with Hitler. In this case he was waiting for the invasion of Japan so Japan would remove troops from the mainland when the nukes forced his hand.
>No doubt a combination of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in addition to the conventional bombing raids, combined with Russia’s declaration played a very significant role in Japan’s decision to surrender.
Conventional bombing increased Japanese resistance. The reason nukes are effective is the shock effect where as bombing raids don’t carry nearly that level of shock.
“Conventional bombing increased Japanese resistance. The reason nukes are effective is the shock effect where as bombing raids don’t carry nearly that level of shock.”
Every reading of Japanese people of that era holds that the firebombing of Tokyo shocked them more than the atomic bombings. Conventional B-29 bombing of Japan didn’t increase Japanese resistance. They were weakened in spirit and knew the end was coming. That nation was falling into despair from the B-29s roaming with near impunity and with the USN Battleships and carriers pounding the home islands at will.
This revisionism is everywhere that the 8th air force bombings had no effect on Germany, that the japan firebombings did no real good, that we could have bypassed the Philippines, New Guinea, Iwo Jima, etc.
The truth is all of those things hurt them, and hurt them badly.
The Japanese were resigned to fighting to the bitter end knowing that they might even cease to exist as a people. It’s a trait inconceivable to the Western mind but it’s bound up in Japanese ideas of honor and obeying the Emperor.
They were willing to tough out all of the bombing and invasion that we could hurl at them.
But the atomic bombs were different. They were like a force of nature, and they allowed the Emperor to quit fighting without the Japanese people losing face. In an odd way the bombs saved many millions of Japanese from the death which conventional war would have inflicted upon them.