Source: usnews.com/
It was Soviet intervention,
not the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
that caused Japan to surrender.
Most Americans cling to the myth that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, by forcing Japan’s surrender without a U.S. invasion, saved the lives of a half million or more American boys. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
As the National Museum of the U.S. Navy makes clear, the atomic bombs had little to do with the end of the war. The museum’s display on the bombings unambiguously states that the atomic bombings "made little impact on the Japanese military. However, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria … changed their minds." As shocking as this may be to Americans today, it was well known to military leaders at the time. In fact, seven of America’s eight five-star officers in 1945 said that the bombs were either militarily unnecessary, morally reprehensible or both.
General Dwight Eisenhower voiced his opposition at Potsdam. "The Japanese were already defeated," he told Secretary of War Henry Stimson, "and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing." Admiral William Leahy, President Harry Truman’s chief of staff, said that the "Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender….The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan." General Douglas MacArthur said that the Japanese would have gladly surrendered as early as May if the U.S. had told them they could keep the emperor. Similar views were voiced by Admirals Chester Nimitz, Ernest King and William Halsey, and General Henry Arnold.
By the summer of 1945, Japan was desperate. Food and energy were in short supply. The transportation system was in tatters. Following the defeat at Saipan in July 1944, many Japanese leaders realized the war could not be won militarily. In February 1945, Prince Konoe, the former prime minister, wrote to Emperor Hirohito, "I regret to say that defeat is inevitable."
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U.S. and British intelligence officials, having broken Japanese codes early in the war, were well aware of Japanese desperation and the effect that Soviet intervention would have. On April 11, the Joint Intelligence Staff of the Joint Chiefs predicted, "If at any time the USSR should enter the war, all Japanese will realize that absolute defeat is inevitable." Japan’s Supreme War Council confirmed that conclusion, declaring in May, "At the present moment, when Japan is waging a life-or-death struggle against the U.S. and Britain, Soviet entry into the war will deal a death blow to the Empire."
Telegrams going back and forth between Japanese officials in Tokyo and Moscow made it clear that the Japanese were seeking an honorable way to end what they had started. Retention of the emperor, as MacArthur noted, was the main stumbling block to surrender. Truman was well aware of the situation. He referred to the intercepted July 18 cable as the "telegram from the Jap emperor asking for peace." His close advisors concurred. They also knew that the Soviet invasion would spell Japan’s doom. At Potsdam on July 17, Stalin assured Truman that the Soviets were coming in as Stalin had promised Roosevelt at Yalta. Stalin will "be in the Jap war on August 15," Truman penned in his journal. "Fini Japs when that comes about." He wrote to his wife the next night, "We’ll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won’t be killed."
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria and other Japanese colonies began at midnight on August 8, sandwiched between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And it was, indeed, the death blow U.S. officials knew it would be. When asked, on August 10, why Japan had to surrender so quickly, Prime Minister Suzuki explained, Japan must surrender immediately or "the Soviet Union will take not only Manchuria, Korea, Karafuto, but also Hokkaido. This would destroy the foundation of Japan. We must end the war when we can deal with the United States."
As postwar U.S. intelligence reports made clear, the atomic bombs had little impact on the Japanese decision. The U.S. had been firebombing and wiping out Japanese cities since early March. Destruction reached 99.5 percent in the city of Toyama. Japanese leaders accepted that the U.S. could and would wipe out Japan’s cities. It didn’t make a big difference whether this was one plane and one bomb or hundreds of planes and thousands of bombs.
But the dreaded Soviet invasion proved, once and for all, the bankruptcy of both Japan’s diplomatic and military strategies and, as the U.S. Navy Museum acknowledges, brought down the final curtain on the war. The atomic bombs contributed next to nothing to U.S. victory, but they did slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians and they did initiate a process that threatened to ultimately bring down the final curtain on mankind. As Oliver Stone and I say in our "Untold History of the United States" documentary series, to kill civilians is a war crime. To threaten the existence of all life on this planet is far, far worse. And to continue to justify these actions for more than 70 years is truly beyond reason, decency, or comprehension.
Peter Kuznick is professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. He and Oliver Stone co-authored the Showtime documentary series and book, “The Untold History of the United States.”
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