[Stay the course]

Some people think we should have dropped and filmed one atomic bomb in 1945 in the South Pacific and sent the film in the can directly to Tokyo through the Red Cross, with a threat attached.

Some people are stupid. Japan didn't surrender after we dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. These people think a film of a bomb would have worked, when an actual bomb didn't. Unbelievable.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The destruction of the Japanese forces in Manchuria by the Russians (took about a week) did help though. This is an under appreciated campaign in the West.

[AmericanInTokyo]

You are of course technically incorrect. But that's a whole 'nuther thread....

[Erasmus]

Some people are stupid. Japan didn't surrender after we dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. These people think a film of a bomb would have worked, when an actual bomb didn't. Unbelievable.

One of the reasons for the delayed response by the Japanese was that the destruction in Hiroshima was so severe that communications were cut off and Tokyo didn't know what had happened for about a day.

The US had Nagasaki in the pipeline by then, and went ahead with it bombing three days later. Several more bombs could have been dropped in the weeks after Nagasaki if Japan had not capitulated.

The Japanese Government and Military were in complete disarray after the news of Hiroshima was received, and moreso after Nagasaki. Some Generals realized it was the end, and some others were driven into a semi-psychotic funk, offering to defend the island to the last citizen.

The Emperor heard all of this conflicting counsel and decided to cut the Gordian knot. He bypassed the Generals and the Diet and recorded a conciliatory speech for broadcast directly to the Japanese people (few of whom had ever before heard his voice), explaining that it was time for the nation to lay down its arms.