[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by rextorres:
That the bomb ended the war is a myth that we Americans like to tell ourselves. The US was already killing 100,000s of civilians every night from fire bombings in the capital cities so please don't give me any altruistic crap about saving innocent civilian lives.

The Japanese were actually ready to surrender - they just wanted a guarantee that Hirohito would not be tried as a war criminal. The US would not agree to this. The US, however, agreed to this condition AFTER the bomb was dropped mainly because we didn't want the Russians to know that we were out of them.

We simply dropped the bomb out of revenge as Atrocities inadvertantly and explicitly highlights AND probably more importantly to show the Russians that we were willling to use them.

AND didn't want the Russians to take too much territory on the mainland of Asia. They had declared war as agreed and were advancing into the lands held by the Japanese. As in Europe they were not likely to let go of anything they took, even if they used proxies to hold it. Look at the course of events in Korea.

What if the Russians managed to get a foothold in Japan itself before the US could take control? That was a big risk if there was to be a long, bloody conquest. So you can see the incentive to accept this condition. And they actually turned it into an 'advantage' by turning the Emperor into a spokesman for their modernization campaign.

[ December 11, 2003, 18:02: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]