The Real Reason Japan Surrendered in WWII

[noneedtoknow]

When you realize that the Allies are no longer fighting you but fighting each other over you.

[randallsanchez]

Fun fact: the firebombing missions were often as or more deadly than the atomic bomb. Entire cities would go up in flames due to their wood and paper construction. Literal firestorms reached into the sky and the bombers could see it from miles away.

[thebighurt]

The big turning point was the Emperor himself putting his foot down and directly ordering the IJA to surrender. Granted, his decision was *due* to multiple factors, including ones already mentioned.

[vansiar]

Fun fact: Japan almost didn't surrender. The Emperor devided to surrender and recorded a message to be played for the citizens. When the generals heard this they went on a raid to find the copy of that recording because they didn't want to surrender. Luckily they had two copies so they managed to play it. Funny thing is, many people could not understand what he was saying because he was talking in such a oldschool, refined sort of dilact that was quite outdated at that time.

[cjvan]

Hiroo Onoda what's the last Japanese soldier of world war II surrender. He refused to believe that the Japanese surrendered and they had to bring out one of his old commanding officers to convince him. He surrendered on March 11, 1974.

[dr.woozie]

They knew that the Soviets would deport the Japanese royal family and military elites to the gulags. The US on the other hand maintained Hirohito as a ceremonial head of state while drafting a new constitution. Only Tojo and a select few generals and lower-ranking scapegoats were tried by the Tokyo tribunal while the rest got away scot free in order to maintain American influence of Japan (including the central banks, construction contracts, and military bases such as Okinawa - which remained a US territory until 1972).

Actually, PM Shinzo Abe was the grandson of one of these leaders, Nobusuke Kishi, known as the “Monster of Manchukuo” for his brutal rule of the puppet state, overseeing mass slave labor and Unit 731. Kishi was imprisoned as a Class A war criminal but released by US authorities.

[jaimegallegos]

BTW The japanese plan for defeating the invasion was called Operation Ketsugo. They planned the entire population of Japan would resist the invasion, and from June 1945 onward, a propaganda campaign calling for "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" commenced. They said that it was "glorious to die for the holy emperor of Japan, and every Japanese man, woman, and child should die for the Emperor when the Allies arrived".

[SaviorCross]

One fo the main reasons the Japanese only surrender when given guarantees that the emperor would not be harmed, or they fight to the death..

[SerijoschaM]

It is rarely just one single aspect that justifies historical moments - or decisions.

[dl]

At potsdam, the soviets said they would attack japan within 90 days. They attacked 90 days later, they didnt bring forward the date

[emilioreyes]

Stalin was very aware of the bombs well before Hiroshima

[patrickevans]

A fighting fierceness I never knew before until now. No wonder why my dad could never talk about it. God bless you, dad.

[cadenz]

The consensus seems to be that the bombs broke the Japanese people and the Soviets broke the Japanese military who were unreactive to the bombs and the total war. Both these factors forced leadership to surrender, facing the Americans destroying their cities and people followed by the suffering Germanys fate from the Soviets. Both the community’s will and the military’s was broken.

[jamesw]

However, Hirohito mentioned in his speech announcing the surrender to the Japanese people that “the enemy has developed a new and most powerful bomb, capable of great destruction.” It certainly seemed to mean something to him…

[wesch]

I see a ton of people spreading disinformation about the soviet union being the real reason Japan surrendered. While the threat of soviet invasion did play a part. It was not the reason. After the bombs were dropped. Combined with all the fire bombing raids. Finally gave the emperor the leverage he needed to overrule his war cabinet. Those men heald the real power and would have just deposed the emperor if he had tried sooner.

[ramlin]

I have a Japanese professor for US history and college. You told us that the atomic bombs that landed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not deter the Japanese. He mentioned that what made the Japanese surrender was the invasion by Stalin.

[jaykaufman]

I'm shocked; this is nonsense.
1) The Soviets absolutely DID NOT "move up the date" of their invasion. Stalin promised FDR at Yalta the Red Army would attack Japan "three months" after Germany surrendered. He was as good as his word: the Germans surrendered on 7-8 May and the Red Army invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria on 7 August.
2) The USAAF didn't drop the bombs "up north" to warn the Soviets "back off buddy." Hiroshima and Nagasaki are in southern Honshu, the conventional bombing raids were on their favorite target: Tokyo itself. I don't think the U.S. ever bombed Sakhalin Island or Hokkaido or anyplace else the Soviets had their eye on.
Gar Alperovitz is the pseudo-historian most responsible for the myth the atomic bombs were meant to bully the Soviets, and bombing Japan was a war crime because they were desperate to surrender, but Truman wouldn't let this happen until after showing off the A-bombs. This is the thesis of his "Atomic Diplomacy" (1965). The book was something of a landmark because a mainstream publisher, Simon & Schuster, published "Atomic Diplomacy." Until then far-left academics like Alperovitz could only dream of a major publisher putting out their work. Random House was regarded as soft on Communists, but even they didn't publish extremists like Gar Alperowitz. But times were changing and people spouting poorly-founded Soviet propaganda were no longer taboo.
I had no idea Richard Rhodes was of this type.

[azimus]

"Stalin moved up the invasion date" - this is simply not true. The invasion date was set at the Tehran and Yalta conferences. You can't 'move up' an invasion of hundreds of thousands of troops being staged halfway across the planet on a whim. Stalin had no way of knowing there was more than one atomic bomb, or if there was more than two. Pretty shoddy history work, easily disproven.

[Richard-mhll]

My Dad fought at Saipan, Okinawa and other bloody battles he.llved in nightmares and hated the Japanese the rest of his life. Dad witnessed horrific atrocities and saw many of his friends die in heavy, combat.The enemy refused to surrender it took two nuclear bombs and the lives.of thousands of troops.before they gave up!

[Triple_Alliance]

Stalin had spies in the manhattan project and knew about the power of these possible bombs way before hiroshima and nagasaki, and he was also very aware of the trinity test